Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood
by eric8teen
Summary: The flames of war grow more and more over galia and its citzens, but one darcsen young man will lead them to victory and to an end of darcsen slavery!
1. Prologue

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Prologue:

"_Wake up boy, you never would feel from a hit like that, come on! You are not weak, i know this, wake up! Wake up!"_

I though I've heard my father's voice, or was i just hallucinating? I opened my eyes slowly to find out i was passed out in the floor of the living room, i tried to stand up but my head hurts so much, i wonder what happened, there so much blood on the floor…

I found out that the blood on the floor was mine when i touched my head and felt the dried blood in my hair, i couldn't stand up alone so i took a wood board as a support, after looking around the house a little i try to remember what happened.

I sat on a chair in the kitchen and remembered, there was a huge explosion and imperial soldiers came from everywhere, i tried to run to my little sister's room when i was hit in the head…

"Wait… Zanna? Oh no! Zanna!"

I've begun to shout out for my little sister to know where we're she, i searched around the entire house for her but found no one, i remembered we had a hidden basement where i didn't had looked.

I take of the carpet that was hiding the trap door, and with all the strength that i still had, opened the trap door with one of my arms, i looked down the stairs that fallowed to pure darkness, not a thing moved down there and not a wind of breath was heard, i got closer to it and start shouting…

" Zanna! Zanna, are you there? Answer me, please!"

I stop shouting as soon as i realized that my town was attacked by imperial soldiers, what if they were still in the house? But now was too late to hide myself, i heard footsteps from the darkness of the basement, i took an defensive stance and prepared myself, although it was a lost battle as i was not in a good condition, i was tired, i was seriously injured and i had no fire weapon at my reach, all that i had was the wood board that i used as a support to help me walk.

The footsteps came closer and closer, and as the person got closer to the light i saw a little silhouette, like the size of a 16 year old girl.

"Nehro?" the person asked to me."Is that you Nehro?"

"Zanna?" i said with my hopes up.

i would recognize that voice anywhere, it was her, my little sister.

"Nehro!" She shouts while she runs in my direction

She then hugs me and starts to cry, she look so sad…

"Nehro, it was horrible! I heard an explosion from the outside, and then when i heard they coming to my room i hided under my bed, after they left i ran to the basement and than i waited here but i didn't know if it was safe to get out so i just waited here… Whaaaaaaaaannnnnnn! *sniff* *sniff*" She desperately starts to cry in my arms, and i didn't know what to do.

"Wait, so you didn't saw passed out at the floor?"

"No, i think they dragged you here later…"

I tough to myself that i was lucky, maybe they tough that i was dead, and since I'm a darcsen, there was no need to save me and get me as a prisioner, for once, the hate of the imperias on darcsens had saved my sking… kind of...

" It's okay now, stop crying, here, blow your nose on this." I gave her a tissue

" thanks, *sniff* *sniff* "

"16 years old and you still act like a little girl…" I said to her as i pet her in the head

"That's not funny Nehro! Everyone… everyone we knew, our friends are…"

"I know, but our priority now is to get out of the town, and it's not going to be easy, i still hear some imperial tanks shooting in the distance" I said while taking a look carefully outside by the corner of the window.

"Nehro, did you forgot?"

"Forgot what?"

"Nehro! The secret passage way that leads out of the town, at the basement!"

"You're right!"

As we go down to the basement, we opened the secret passage way made by our father long time ago for this kind of situation, we walked down the tunnel that leads to some mountains not so far from the town.

"Nehro, your head!" said Zanna, scared with all the blood in my hair.

"hmm? What? Ah! Don't worry, it's nothing really serious."

"Don't say that, you lost a lot of blood! Let me see it!" She then grabs me by the arm and makes me sit on the ground so that she can take a better look at it.

" Does it heart?"

"Not really, look, i'm fine, the important thing now is to find somewhere we can go!"

"okay…"

As we walk through the mountains, we look from a cliff, at a distance there was our town, burning and destroyed by the empire soldiers, and with still some squads looking for darcsens to ad to their concentration camps.

"Nehro, everyone is…" Zanna looks really sad and starts to cry again

"Don't worry, we will avenge everyone, i promise you" I said that while i hug her to give her some confort.

But before that, we need to find somewhere safe and quickly, we got of the mountains to the other way, by lucky we found a old car, it has enough ragnite for at least 2 days of travel, we headed north and wished for the best.


	2. Chapter 1: The flames of war

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 1: the flames of war

My name is Neroh, i'm 18 years old, darcsen and a citizen of Galia, long hair and with medium stature. I'm walking with my little sister, Zanna, who's 16 years old, she is also a darcsen, with short hair with a pair of pigtails, she seems smaller than girls of the same age as her, and sometimes still acts like a little girl.

Things would be okay if it wasn't by the fact that our hometown, the place that we were born and made lots of friends, is now in ashes, and we are now looking for somewhere safe , and after that, find a way to avenge everyone that died at the hands of the imperial soldiers.

We continued traveling north, as we had no other choice, because the Empire was right behind us, conquering every town in their way. As we try to get to a safe town we met a lot of refugees and survivors from imperial attacks, but not too many darcsens, i guess their "slave hunt" is being a success so far. We met some of them, there was Zig, a young boy of 14 years old who is pretty active and happy, he told us that he lost his parents when imperial soldiers attacked his village, he was captured and was being transported to a concentration camp in a slave wagon, and he managed to escape. He is almost of medium stature and has messy short hair, he also said that he worked helping his father at their mechanical shop. Next, there is Nazir, he used to be a famous bounty hunter, but in one of his missions, were he was supposed to assassinate an imperial officer he was found out and was forced to work in a concentration camp mining ragnite for 3 years, after that he escaped to Galia. He is 22 years old, has short hair, wears a bandana in his head, and he said to be one of the best shooters in all of Europa, never ever he had missed a shot. Now there is Mannar, he is a 32 years old man who used to be a medic, but by the fact that darcsens are not really appreciated at this society he didn't really profited much, so he had no other choice than to close his office, he said that he's going to Bruhl to find his daughter, saying that he's really worried about her. And finally, we have Nanah, a girl of 19 years old who is looking for her older brother, she said he joined the militia some months ago and had always written letters for her, but one day suddenly stoped, she said she has no news about her brother and she is so worried that she is going to the militia HQ on the north to know what happened to him.

One day we were walking by the road, traveling to Bruhl, when 3 trucks passed by us and stopped not too far ahead from us, a man in a town guard uniform got out from the first truck, he said he is in a mission to gather survivors from towns and villages attacked by the Empire and get them to Bruhl.

- We still have some space on the last truck back there, if you guys would like a ride to Bruhl.

- Seems okay to me, what about you guys? - I've turned to the others as i asked.

Everyone seemed to agree, as we passed the first two trucks we saw the looks of discrimination in the face of the survivors. The last truck was filled only with darcsens.

- not too much of a surprise if you ask me.- I thought to myself. We got in the back of the truck and started moving to the town of Bruhl, the most safe town at the moment. As we travelled, we shared our stories of how we got in this situation and how we survived the attacks from the Empire with all the darcsen survivors.

As we continued to travel to Bruhl Nazir seemed strange.

- What is it Nazir?

- Nothing, it's just that i thought i had seen something in the woods. – He said while pointing to the forest next by the road.

- The woods, i'm having a bad felling about this. - I looked around to see if anything strange was happening, i saw a glow in the middle of the bushes.

As we continued travelling north, the tension in the air around the forest continued to grow, until a shot was heard coming from the forest, the first truck was flipped by an explosion, and before we knew we were being attacked by a group of raiders, we immediately got out of the truck and got behind it for protection

- What we're going to do?

- We're doomed, we're all going to die!

The people from the truck in front of ours were freaking out, and they started to shoot at us, the town guards tried to fight back, but one by one, they were falling, winning against them seems impossible.

- Don't worry! – Said the town guard right by my side, while crouched, supporting his weapon in the side of the truck. – We will do anything that is possible to protect you all! We will in this for su-. – Before he could finish, he was shot in the head, the blood flew to my face, i was terrified!

My sister pulled my sleeve, she was crying so much…

- Neroh, we will die here? I don't wanna die! I want to live! Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! – She starts to cry uncontrollably.

- We won't last long! We need reinforcements, or we'll die for sure!- Said the towns guard in the truck ahead of us.

- Oh no! the captain got shoot! The captain is down!

- We are all going to die!

- I'ts hopeless!

Everyone around was beginning to freak out, the only one that seems to be calm was Nazir, he looked at me and calmly asked:

- So, what do you think is going to happen now?

I closed my eyes to think, what could we possibly do now? It looked like this was the end for all of us, there was no more hope.

"_What are you doing Neroh? Are you going to give up that easily? Remember who you are, if a rock gets in your way brake it with your fists, if a cliff is in your way too, run and jump over it, and if an ocean appears too, swim across it! You are destined to great things Neroh, remember this, and you'll never lose. Now get up! Get up and fight!"_

- Father? – I fought to myself while i opened my eyes.

I knew from that moment that i couldn't surrender now, i made a promise to my father that i would always win! I would win and nothing in my way would stop me. I grabbed the rifle that was on the ground from the town guard who got shoot in the head.

- People, calm down! I have a plan, will you listen to me?

- What are you talking about boy? – Asked Mannar. – Do you really thing you can get us out of this situation?

- Yes! – I replied vigorously. – I don't know about you guys but, i was told never to surrender myself in this kind of situations, the kind that looks impossible to win, i have being treated like garbage my entire life, but i always got out of this situations with my head up high to the skies, always believing that i was more than just a piece of garbage, believing that i was destined to great thing, so my father thought the same, i will not surrender, not now, if you guys want to live too, fallow my plan, are you willing to do it?

- Neroh… - Said Nanah, encouraged by the speech. – Okay! I'll fallow your plan!

- Count me in boy! – Said Mannar really willing to do it.

- Well… - Said Nazir while using a grindstone in his knife. – If your plan is so good as your speech than i'm in too.

- Put me in too! I'm not going to die here, i still have to make those imperials pay for what they did to my parents! – Said Zig, eager to fight.

- So, b-brother, what's the p-plan? – Zanna said, i looked at her, her hands were still shaking so much, you could just look at her eyes and tell that she was clearly terrified.

I got close to her and hugged her.

- It's all right Zanna, you're going to be fine, okay?

- Okay…

I let her go, at least she seems more calm now.

- So, what's the plan?

- Here is the thing, Nazir, you said to be the best shooter in all of Europa, right?

- For sure i am!

- And you also used to be a bounty hunter right?

- What is your point?

- Have you ever made a contract with someone were you needed to do a sneaky mission?

- Of course i had! What do you think this Knife was used for?

- Okay, see the long grass right there? – i pointed to the left side of the truck.

- Yes?

- I need you Mannar, and you Nanah to go sneaking to that side of the forest and take the enemy position so that we can use against them in the other side of the road.

- But it' impossible for us to take on all those raiders!

- That's were Nazir enters, you Nazir is going to go ahead first and take them out one by one without them knowing.

- Huh! Nothing i can't handle it! – He said while looking to his knife, almost in a scary way…

- Once you have cleared them out, sign back to us with your knife, that's when you two are going to sneaky by there and use that part of the forest against them. – I said while i pointed to Nanah and mannar.

- All right!

- Got that!

Nazir was already going to move to the right into the forest, when i stopped him, i grabbed the backpack that one of the town guards was using, i took a scope and hand it to him with a rifle.

- Have a nice hunt!

He replied with a little smile and carry on to his mission

- What about us? Asked Zig, holding a machine gun on his hands, ready to use it.

- We, and the other darcsens survivors are going to give suppressive fire on the enemy, so that the survivors and the town guard on the truck ahead of us can retreat back here, are you all ready?

- Sure i am!

- I'm ready to, Neroh! - Said Zanna holding a pistol she found on the backpack i got from one of the town guards before, but with a fighting spirit burning in her eyes.

- Ready… and… now!

We all got support on the side of the truck holding rifles, machine guns, shotguns and pistols, anything we could get that was on the truck and on the backpack, we fired at the enemy for some minutes, while i tried to get the persons on the truck ahead of us to the truck we were. In the middle of this gunfire i looked on one of the trees to the northwest, a glow was coming out of the branches, that was it! That was the sign!

- You two, go now! Don't worry, we'll give you covering fire!

Nanah and Mannar have successfully passed to the left side of the forest, before they knew, they were getting suppressed by both south and west, they really didn't get what was going on.

- Why are we being shot by our own guys? Are they nuts?

- It's obviously that they took are guys out somehow and are now shooting at us from the west position!

- Dammit! We won't last long like this! Retreat! Everyone retreat! We're falling back!

The raiders have finally retreated, we got up and begun to cheer for our victory.

- We did it Neroh! We won! – Zanna jumps and hugs me with all her strength.

- Of course we did it, didn't i tell you i would never lose?

- You sure did!

I looked to the right, it was Nazir, smoking a cigar after a job well done.

- I didn't really believed in you kid, but you proved me wrong, you got potential!

- Ha ha! Thanks! – I looked behind him and coming out of the woods were Manna and Nanah.

- You're impressive kid!

- Yeah! If it wasn't for you, we would be all dead! Thanks so much! – Nanah said it with a smile on her face.

- hu- hum.. you're welcome… - I have to admit, i got really blushed at this moment.

- You're great Neroh! Said Zig, still jumping of happiness for winning this battle.

- He truly is! – I turned to see who was the person that said that, it was the captain!

- Are you okay?

- Yes, thanks to you! If it wasn't you, we would all be dead.

- That's not…

- Don't be modest, we own you our lives! Thank you very much!

- it's okay…

After a lot of talking, we continued to move to Bruhl, as we were afraid that the raiders may come back with reinforcements, we continued traveling, but this time slower since one of the trucks exploded, some needed to go on foot, accompanying the trucks, most of us continued on foot to get space on the trucks for the sick and children, and after a hill, we finally saw it, Bruhl, i know that this isn't the end of the war, but at least, we may have some days of peace here.


	3. Chapter 2: Peace time

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 2: Peace time

We finally arrived at Bruhl, after a long time traveling and surviving that attack from the raiders, at least we may have some time of peace, said that the empire would still take some weeks t get to Bruhl, that, of course, if the town guard could hold them off. When we entered the city, we were instructed to go to an address, it was a big building that was being used as a refugee camp or something like it, the old man that was the owner of the place was really kind and took us in despite the fact that we were darcsens, it's good to know that at times of war, there still people who don't judge a book by its cover.

The days passed, and so we meet a lot of people that were in the same situation as us, we also got temporary jobs to help the kind old man, although what he is doing is right and its helping a lot of people, it must cost a lot of money, and it's not like he is rich or working for the government, so we decided to help him, so as the others. My father worked as a engineer to the army, but he was also an inventor, he made lots and lots of weapons for the army, but not all of the projects were accepted, so i worked fixing the weapons and tanks for the town guards, and i have to say, the situation of the tanks was not the best, they were more like relics from the first great war so there was not much that i could do to repair them, Nazir is also helping me, after all, he was a bounty hunter, he must know about weapons and this kind of stuff more than i do, Zanna and Nanah got a job as assistants in a bakery not too far from the refugee camp, Mannar worked helping the new refugees and survivors that came to the town by the days that have passed, and Zig worked carrying ammo, food, medical supplies and ragnite containers to the center of the town, and for sure there was a lot of ragnite, guess the Empire is getting closer and closer to Bruhl and they are trying to gather as many ragnite as they can.

One day, when me and Nizar were finished for the day, so we closed our little "store" (as if it could be called that) that was not too much, just a space in the alley were we got to small benches and got a suitcase with all the tools that we needed to fix the weapons and some other things, and we were on our way home. The bakery were Zenna and Nanah were working was just in the way, so we decided to pass there and see if they were okay to go back to the refugee camp.

- Hey there! Zenna! Nanah!

- Oh hi! Brother!

- Hello there, Neroh! Nazir!

I looked around and saw the bakery, the outside seems pretty fancy, but in the inside it was nothing more than a ordinary bakery.

- So, are you two good to go back to the camp?

- You're two are going already?

- Yeah, we finished things today, so Neroh thought it would be a good idea if we got here and see if you two were already good to go.

- I think we are almost done, right Nanah?

- I guess we are, but we need to tell the manager.

- Oh, right! Alicia, we're done for today, we're leaving okay? – Zenna shouted to the back door that seems to leave to the oven of the bakery.

- Okay! Just wait a second! – Replied someone in the backroom

After some seconds i hear the footsteps from the backroom coming closer to the front part of the bakery, from the door, appeared a beautiful young girl, of brown hair and two pigtails, wearing a red and white headband, she seems to be really kind and nice.

- Alicia, this is my brother, Neroh, and this is his friend, Nazir.

- Oh, so you're the big brother that Zenna talks so much about, i'm Alicia Melchiott, nice to meet you!

- Oh, nice to meet you too! I hope my little sister didn't cause you to much trouble…

Zenna turns to me with an angry look on her face.

- Neroh!

- Ha ha ha, calm down, i'm just kidding! – I said that while petting her on the head

- Geez! You always treat me like a child! I'm sixteen you know!

- C'mon, i'm just kidding

After a moment, were everyone laughed a little, Alicia looked at my direction and said:

- Actually, i have to thank your sister and Nanah, without her help it would be really hard to run this bakery every day, you see, the owner of this bakery has gone sick, and after that i've being trying to run this bakery all by myself, and it didn't work pretty well, since i am also a member of the town guard, it has being really hard, but after Zenna and Nanah offered themselves to work here, things got pretty easy.

- I see… Well, thanks for accepting her for the job, i was really worried since she didn't really had any experience in this kind of job.

- Neroh! Stop it already! Geez, you idiot! – She said that while punching me in the arm.

- Ouch! Okay okay, i got it, i'll stop it! Ha ha…

- Here, take this with you before you two go, think of this as a thanks for helping me so much this days that have passed. – Alicia hands two paper bags filled with bread to Zenna and Nanah, and i gotta say, if that's a thanks for the help they two provided, than for sure it was a lot of help.

- Thank you so much Alicia!

- Thanks you manager!

- You're welcome!

After we got the bags we said bye to Alicia and got our way to the camp, we were having a nice talk when i wasn't watching my way and suddenly bumped into someone.

- Ouch! Sorry for that, are you okay? – I stretched my hand in the direction o the person that i've bumped into, she was a young darcsen girl, maybe the same age as Zenna, with short hair, she grabbed my hand and stood up.

- Thanks! I'm okay!

- Neroh! Watch out when you're walking! – Zenna said looking at me, she seemed really mad.

- Please, don't fight because of me! I'm fine, really.

- Anyway, sorry for bumped into you, at least let me help you with all your shopping.

We walked along with her and got into a big mansion, rumors from the local villagers said that this was the home of a national hero, we entered and saw that the inside was fancy as the outside, a house really worth its fame i guess…

- You can put them in the balcony over there

- Wow! You sure have a beautiful home!

- It's actually my father's home.

- And where is h now?

- He's not here anymore, he died a while ago…

- Oh! Sorry for asking…

- No problem at all, by the way, i didn't really catch your guys names.

- I'm Neroh!

- I'm Zenna!

- I'm Nanah, nice to meet you!

- And i'm Nazir!

- Thanks for helping me everyone! My name is Isara Gunther!

For a moment everyone got quite for some minutes, i couldn't believe what she just said, i need to confirm it.

- I- i'm sorry, but did you just said Gunther?

- Yes! Isara Gunther! That's me!

- You mean that you're the daughter of General Gunther? The hero of the great war? – Said Nanah really surprised by her reply to my question.

- Yes, that's right!

- Wow, incredible! – Said Zenna.

- But there's one thing i can't understand. – Said Nazir while looking through some paintings on the walls of the mansion. – If you're he's daughter, how come that you're a darcsen and he's not?

- Actually, now that i think about, it would be impossible for her to be he's daughter, unless she is… - i thought to myself.

- I'm not really his daughter by blood, you see, my true father was a really close friend to him, and when he died, General Gunther accepted me as member of his own family, along with his son, my brother.

- And where is your brother now?

- He has traveled south to do some bug hunting, he really is a lover of nature, i just hope that he is okay and that he is coming to Bruhl soon.

- Well, i hpe so too, but anyway, sorry again for bumping into you, but we gotta go now.

- Thanks for your help, and if i can help you anyway you need just ask me, okay?

- All right, no problem! Bye then!

- Bye Isara!

- Bye everyone!

After that we got back to the camp, i talked with Mannar to see if he had any news about his daughter, he said that she is not in Bruhl, and all he wants is to find her and know how she is.

I wake up the next morning and prepared myself with Nizar to go out and continue our work

- Here you go! – I handle a rifle that i have fixed to the town guard captain.

- Thanks! Boy, you got some talent! Could you look at my pistol to?

- Sure! – But before i could get the pistol from his hand, a town guard came in a rush, looks like he really needed to talk to the captain…

- Captain! Captain! We got really bad news!

- Alexander? What are you doing here? Were you not supposed to be in the borders?

- That's why i'm here sir, i got as fast as i can. – He actually looked really exhausted, something tells me that he was running the whole day.

- Calm down and say it slowly Alxander, what is it?

- The… the Empire… they are coming here… To Bruhl!

- What?

- It's looks like that we have 4 days to prepare before they reach Bruhl.

Now we had a new problem, they said 3 days ago that the empire would take at least 2 weeks before they could get to Bruhl if the town guard could hold them off… Does this mean that… that the town guard has failed? And if they have failed, what are we gonna do right now? We only have 4 days, i know that we can't defend ourselves in the military state that the town is, the only other option is a massive evacuation of the town, and if we're gonna do it, we need to do it fast…


	4. Chapter 3: The withdrawal

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 3: The Withdrawal

After that day, the whole town begun to gather as many resources as quickly as they could, food, medicines, ammo, anything they could find, it was also heard that the militia would be coming to help the citizens in case that the imperial army comes earlier than the expected, after all, it was supposed for them to be her at least 2 weeks if the town guard could hold them off, they weren't, and now they are approximately 3 days of travelling to Bruhl.

The bakery now where Zenna an Nanah are working it's more of a supply station, all the bread that is being produced there is being gathered to trucks in the center of the town and from there sent north to other towns and army and militia HQ. Alicia can't help them now, as she is a former member of the town guard, she is already full of work helping the people of the town, i've passed at the General's mansion to see how Isara was doing, she is okay an also helping with the situation of the town, but she refuses to leave the town until her brother arrival, she seems pretty much of a stubborn girl.

The situation seems worst the next day, some of the town guard sent to the borders of the town, surrounded by the forest, came back to the town, all of them are injured, 35 members of the town guard were sent to hold off the Imperial army squad, 35 members, only 9 got back alive. Me and Nazir stopped what we were doing and helped the injured town guards, helping Mannar in his work, this seems pretty bad, if the militia don't hurry up, well be in serious trouble, good thing that we've kept the weapons we used against the raiders, because i think we're gonna need to use them, and i'm having the feeling that's gonna be soon.

The next morning i woke up, i've got up from my bed and change it myself, i was going out of the building that we used to call "camp" and waited or Nazir next to the door with my back against the wall. When he got out, he turned into my direction and seriously looked at me, giving me a creepy look.

- What? – I said feeling really uncomfortable as he gives me that creepy look.

- You know as much as i do that the situation right now is pretty critical, don't you?

- Yeah, i know…

- Good, just to know that you'll be prepared if anything happens. – He finished that way, i guess he's right…

- Well than, first thing we do if anything happens is to rush to the bakery and get Zenna and Nanah, than we find Nammar and get out of here as fast as we can, all right? – I asked him.

- All right boy, agreed!

We got our way back to our "shop" (the corner in a little alley) and started fixing the weapons and what we usually do, but we were also alert for anything happening around the town, people were already evacuating as the imperial army could attack at any second.

It was almost noon when hell broke out and people started to panic as an explosion had hit the mill in the main plaza, we heard the explosion and saw the people running for their lives, we ran out of the alley and turned our heads to the hills from the outskirts of Bruhl, we saw a imperial flag, imperial tanks on their way to Bruhl!

Only one thing was passing through my head, and that was rush to get Zenna and Nanah and get the hell out of this town. Nazir an i rushed to the bakery as we had agreed, for our luck, the town guards were holding the imperials at the plaza, but for the current passed events, i don' think that they would be able to hold them off for too much time, after all, the imperial squad that are attacking the town are composed at least of 50 well trained soldiers and 6 tanks, all we had was 25 town guards armed with old models weapons and some tanks that are from the first great war, in other words, relics that may have a small chance of working in this critical time. We just ran through the exchange of fire between imperial soldiers and town guards and got ourselves to the bakery, i rushed kicking the door.

- Zenna! Nanah! We need to go now, the imperials are… - I stopped talking for a second, i got surprised, 1 imperial were already in the bakery.

I had no other thought in my head, i grabbed my rifle, got myself in a firing position and aimed for his head, but just before i could shoot him, he grabbed Zenna an made her hostage.

- Damm it!

- Now, now, your darcsen garbage! Better put that rifle down before anything happens to this young girl here!

- Don't you dare hurt her! Imperial scum!

- Brother! Help me! Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! – Zenna starts to cry.

- Oh! So this is your little sister, hmm? Maybe i'll take her back to the squad and have some fun with her. – This man was disgusting! Pure sickness! His eyes show nothing more than malice, if he thought that i would lower my rifle, he was really wrong, but also, i could not let her in danger, if i miss, she's dead.

Lucky for me, Nazir was out of the bakery and killed the imperial by shooting at the window, as soon as the imperial got shoot Zenna ran into me and hugged me with all her strength.

- Neroh! Neroh… Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!

- It's okay now, it's okay…

Nazir got closer to me, i turned to thank him…

- Oh, Nazir! Thanks man! If it wasn't for you i-. – i got punched in the face by Nazir before i could finish talking.

- Neroh! Are you okay? – Zenna get down to help me get up.

- What's the deal man? Why did you done that for?

- Idiot! – Nazir shouted at me. – If you have a clear vision of the target, if he is in your sight, shot to kill! No matter what kind of situation you got into! All that matters is that you shoot first, if you shoot first, than your sister would be safe, got that! – He stretched his hand in my direction.

- I… I got that, don't worry, it will never happen again! – I said as i grabbed his hand.

He pulled me up and there were some seconds of silence…

- All right than, let's keep going, we need to find Mannar too.

- All right, but wait, where is Nanah?

- Here! – shouted Zenna while pointing at the door that lead to the backroom.

I kicked the door down because it was locked and i couldn't find the key, Nanah was there terrified in the corner holding a broom, in a way to defend herself.

- Neroh? – She seemed really scared.

- Thank you! – She jumped in my direction and hugged me, she seemed really happy.

- Thank you so much! I was so scared! – She seemed to hug me tighter and tighter.

- W-wait, hmm- Nanah! – I was really embarrassed and extremely blushed.

- But… Oh no! Zenna! Zenna was-. Before she could finish i pointed to her left so she could see that Zenna was okay.

- Zenna! – She hugged her.

- Nanah… - She stated to cry in silence.

- Well, good to know that you're both are okay. – Said Nazir holding his rifle up on his shoulder. – But we should be really going now, i don't think that the town guards can hold the imperials to much longer.

So we all agreed to go now, being led out of the city by north, in the middle of the people that were fleeing there was Mannar, we talked to him and it looks like things got pretty intense in the plaza, looks like a new type tank had appeared at the town, it's holding off the imperials so that the people could flee, but it's not like that he could make the imperials withdrawal.

We walked to a improvised camp to treat the ones that were injured by the imperial's attack, and in one side of the camp, there was some kind of fight going on, it looks like a darcsen man is making is making some demands to some of the town guards, things look like really serious.

- Please! You gotta help me! My little Girls are there! Please! – The man seems pretty upset.

- Sorry sir, but there is nothing we can do.

I know that is not true because these guards were the ones that were with us in the trucks when we were travelling to Bruhl. They were nothing but a bunch of darcsen haters, they did only helped darcsen folk before because their captain order them to, but this time the captain wasn't around, and they just didn't care. So i approached the man that was s much in need of help.

- I'll help you! What is the problem? – I touched his shoulder as he could turn around o see me.

Everyone around got surprised by my choice of words, except for the Zenna and the other ones, at this point they pretty much expected that from me, the man had his eyes glowing, it was like that hope was reborn inside him.

- Really? Will you? – He grabbed my shoulders and start shaking me back and forward.

- Yes! Now please, stop shaking me around!

- S- sorry!

- Now, tell me, what is your situation?

- I was trying to retreat to here with the rest of the crowd holding my little girls by her hands, but one of them forgot her doll at home and ran back to get it, and the other one just fallowed her… i don't know more what to do, those so called "guards" do nothing about it! – The man starts to cry in desperation.

- Calm down, i'm gonna get them back, just tell me where is your address and i'll be on my way.

He told me exactly where he lived told me the names of his daughters, Nazir agreed to come with me, saying "You did a great job last time kid, now let's see you perform a miracle", sounded funny, am i some kind of saint now? Anyway, as we were on our way Zenna stopped me.

- What is it Zenna?

- Here Neroh, i made them to use if we could not flee from the Empire in time, so that they could cover our retreat! – She handles me a bag.

I opened the bag and inside there was some different shaped grenades.

- Do you remember them Neroh?

And i did remember them, they were one of the many projects of our father, they were hand smoke grenades, but this model my father keep it for himself, it was still in need of some fixing.

- Did you finished the project? – I asked her with a surprised face.

- Yes, at the time that dad was doing them i took a look at the blueprints and studied them for some time.

- But you were like 10 years old!

- So what? I'm good at this kind of thing! And after they attacked our town, i also took all of the other blueprints, when we were traveling i studied them at night and finished this one!

- Pretty impressive, nice work! – I said while petting her in the head

- Stop it! Geez! – She seemed pretty mad.

- Okay, okay! I'll be going then. – I had just turned around and started walking in the direction of Bruhl.

- Wait! Neroh!

- What is it?

- Be careful, okay? – Although looking really cute, she seemed really concerned.

- It's okay, i'll be alright, i promisse!

- Okay! – Well, at list she seems calmer and happier.

- Let's go Nazir!

- All right!

We got ourselves on our way back to Bruhl, as we passed the people that were fleeing, they looked at us as if we were crazy, going back to the hell they just left behind, seems pretty much like a crazy idea, but i couldn't let those girls in the town, they would probably be killed by the imperials.

We had just entered Bruhl again, it was a living hell, enemy fire coming from everywhere, explosions and screams of terror from the people that we're fleeing, and our situation was not good, we had no guns or reinforcements, only two knives and a bag containing 5 smoke grenades not tested, but still, we continued to the address said by the man. In the middle of the way we had to go crouched because we were in the enemy side, we stopped, holding our backs again the wall, looking to the street to see if anyone would come. The street was filled with imperial scouts, it would be impossible to cross the street without no cover, good thing we have the smoke grenades…

- Hey Neroh, are you sure that these grenades are going to work? I mean, they are not even tested right, they are just a prototype, am i right?

- I think it will work, they are projects from my father, he was excellent when it comes to weapon creations, and my little sister is a bit talented too, they will work.

- Okay, but, how they work? I mean, they don't appear to have a pin to set them off or something like that.

- If i remember correctly is, you just need to shake them pretty hard, u and down for 3 seconds and then throw them, they are set off after the impact with the floor.

- Okay then, let's do this!

We throw them around the imperial scouts, they get confused and they started to fire in every single direction possible, when they shoot at the opposite direction we made a run for it, and got into the house that the girls were supposed to be.

- Lila! Neenah! Are you there?

- The house seems dead quite… Are you sure that this is the right address?

- I'm pretty sure it is, unless…

*sob* *sob*

- Lila! Quite, or they'll find us!

We looked around and find out that the sounds were coming from the first bedroom, we looked under the bad and there they were, 2 little girls who seemed to be really frightened.

- Hey there little girls, are you two okay?

- Are you an imperial? – One of them asked, all curled with fear.

- No, i'm a friend, you're dad told me to get you to back to him.

- Daddy? – They said with curiosity

- Yeah! Are you two Lila and Neenah?

They both confirmed waving their head up and down.

- I'm Lila! – She seemed to be 6 years old

- And i'm Neenah! – She seemed to be 8 years old

- I'm Neroh! And this is my friend, Nazir!

- Nice to meet you! – Said Nazir with a smile on his face.

- So, now that we know each other's names, should be off to meet with your daddy?

- Okay! – They both said gladly knowing that someone was going to rescue them out of that hellhole.

We just got out of the house and it seems that the smoke grenades are still working, guess my little sister made a good job with those. We ran throughout the alleys and streets holding the little girls on our backs, in one street we had to stop and hide because a gunner was on the lookout, Nazir put Neenah down and sneaky by to get to the gunner, he took him out by stabbing him in the neck when he wasn't expecting, i saw another imperial coming right behind him, he was going to kill him with a bayonet that he had in his rifle, the imperial prepares to strike, without thinking too much i just pulled my knife out and throw it at him, it hit him right at his nape, right bellow the helmet. After that, there seems to be no more obstacles in our way, so we just ran back to the camp, holding the Lila and Nennah at our backs, at this point the Militia was already there, tanks and everything, the town was already lost, but the people could still be saved, they were helping a lot.

- Hey Neroh! You did pretty well back there!

- Thanks! I just did what you said, i saw the chance and i took it! Its okay if i hit them first right? – I said as we continue running to the camp.

He said nothing, instead, he replied by a little smile.

After a lot of running uphill, we finally got the camp, now better protected by the militia tanks.

- Daddy! – They both got down from our backs and started running in the direction of their father.

He receives them with a big hug.

- Please, don't you two do something like this again! – Their father starts to cry as he hugs them

After a while of happy moments he let them go.

- But wait! Oh no! I forgot my doll! – Said Lila with a sad expression.

- There you go! – Nazir stretched his hand with the doll on it.

- Thank you so much sir! – She hugged the doll.

Afterwards, Zenna came running into my direction, jumped and then hugged me, we both felt on the ground and everyone starts to laugh, we looked that the town burning, from the hills…

- And what do we do now Neroh? – Asked Zenna, really worried.

- Now, we fight! The empire must stop here, Galia is our home and we will not let them have her. – I turned back and saw that everyone has agreed.

Now we continued to go north, only destiny will say what is going to happen in the path we choose, but at least we have already chosen, we'll fight, fight for Galia and its citizens, fight for peace! We'll stop them, no matter what!


	5. Chapter 4: The new war pack

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 4: The new war pack.

I can feel the sunlight going through my eyelids, i can see a strong light even before i can open my eyes, and suddenly i heard someone calling my name, who is it?

- Neroh! Neroh wake up! – My little sister, Zenna, wakes me up, i looked around and i remembered that we had taken a truck from the militia to get to the militia north HQ.

- Look Neroh! Right there, look! – She is pointing to the north.

I tuned my head north to see what she was pointing at, it was one of the North Militia HQ, we have finally arrived. The main plan here was to all of us to enter into the Militia, except for Nenah, she was here so that she would know what happened to her brother, we walked through the gates of the Militia HQ, as we walked in one of the buildings we were said to wait in a big room, they said to be a waiting room, and it was also a pretty fancy room.

- Excuse me, i'm here because of my brother, his name is Gin. – Nenah said wahile talking to the receptionist, the rest of us were filling the contracts to enter the Militia.

- You said his name was Gin?

- Yes.

At this point the receptionist face shows a worried expression, something is wrong here.

- Please follow me, this way… - Said the receptionist showing the direction to what appears to be the recruitment director.

We waited for some minutes, knowing that something was wrong, and we waited for quite a time, before we heard a shout.

- What! – The shout came from the recruitment director room, sounded like Nenah, we rushed to the room though the receptionist tried to hold us off.

I made no difference because we passed by her anyway, it was really impossible for a woman to hold off against 4 people, we got ourselves to the recruitment director room and listen to the conversation by the outside…

- What do you mean "we can't go rescue him"?

- miss, try to understand, your brother is missing in action, and the territory where he was last seen is now in enemy control, we can't just throw a squad on a dangerous rescue mission with no information of the enemy in that territory, i'm sorry miss, but we can do nothing right now… - After those last words a cold silence fallow up taking the whole place.

- This… It can't be…

After that we just got back to the waiting room and start a conversation about what was happening.

- Those that mean that Nenah can't see her brother Neroh? – Said Zenna looking me, she really seams worried about Nenah.

- I think so, looks like that they can't provide a rescue operation because they don't have enough information on the enemy territory.

- Well now that is a big problem. – Said Mannar.

- But we can't just stand here and do nothing. – Said Nizar, crossing his arms and having a serious look in his face while with his eyes closed, thinking of what to do.

- That's right, we can't just do nothing, after all we've came all this way helping each other! – Said Zig. But we got scared since we didn't even noticed when he had came here.

- Zig! – We all shouted together, because he was in another truck when we came here, so we didn't know if he was fine.

- So you're okay, what a relief.

- Yeah, sorry i didn't got out of the town with you guys, it's just that i was helping the Militia soldiers gathering some supplies before i could get into one of the trucks and get here.

- Well, at least, now we all know what were going to do. – I said, getting up from the couch from the waiting room.

- Everyone! Drop your documents and fallow me! We're going to search for Gin!

- What? – Shouted Mannar, Zenna and Zig.

- What is it Zig? You're the one that was most determined to do something to help her.

- Yeah, but i didn't mean that we should throw ourselves into a suicide mission!

- So, what about you Nazir? You're the only one that didn't get surprised.

Nazir looked at me with a serious expression, but after some seconds he closed his eyes with his head looking towards the floor and got a little smile in his face.

- Well, we've already survived this far with your plans, i'd say i'm a little confident about this one too.

- Okay! What about you two? Mannar, Zenna?

- I guess i don't have a choice, also, i still need to find my daughter, and you'll need medical supply if something in this plans goes wrong.

- If my brother think that we can do this, then i'll trust him!

All right, looks like everyone have agreed, now the only thing left is to tell Nenah and see what she thinks about it.

- No!

That was really unexpected, especially for the situation, we were ready to go, we got a vehicle, weapons, ammo, supplies, but still she insists on the same answer.

- Why not Nenah? We can do this, it's just going to take a while, but we'll find your brother!

- No, it's not like that i don't trust you guys, it's just that… i don't… i don't want to see any of you hurt.

- What do you mean by that? Didn't we win when the raiders attacked us in the forest when we were going to Bruhl? Didn't i and Nizar got back alive when we saved those little girls?

- I see what you mean, but… In the forest we were fighting mere bandits, i don't think just the 6 of us can handle against an imperial squad, much less and army. And in Bruhl, when you guys saved those girls you had the support of the Militia, and you're all going to enter the Militia right? Doesn't this means that you'll have to obey orders from the general? You guys won't have time for this things…

- Well, not actually… - I said while scratching my head and looking to the right.

- What do you mean?

- We're not going to join the Militia.

- What? – She looked very shocked. – Bu- but didn't you said that you wanted to protect everyone? Isn't that why you and everyone else was going to join the Militia?

- Yeah! But we realized just what you've said right now, that we would have to fallow someone's orders. If i'm going to protect everyone, my home and Galia it will have to be my way, or in other words, it won't work out.

- But what will you guys do?

- We're going to form a "War Pack"!

- War pa-? What are you talking about? – Now she seems pretty confused, doesn't she read the newspaper?

- Here! Read the first article! – I handed her this week's Galia Times newspaper.

- "By the order of the royal princess of Galia, Cordelia gi Randgriz, all citizens that are able to use and have weapon may or may not form, if they wish groups of armed citizens to help defend Galia from the Empire's invasion, this groups of armed citizens will be than called "War Packs" that later shall have to register themselves in any military facility near them, although their progress will be watched by military authorities they will have free will to do whatever they think is better for their own war pack and for a step closer to Galia's peace." – She just stood there silent for some seconds, but afterwards, i saw some tears falling of her face.

- Why? Why do you guys want to do this? I don't… i don't want anyone to… - She seems pretty serious about all of this, i guess she might already have given up on her brother.

I came close to her and hugged her, to give her some comfort and calm her down a little.

- Neroh? – She seems pretty surprised.

- Don't give up yet… - I whispered in her ear.

- Wha…

- i know that he is alive, and we will find him okay, we just need a little time…

- O- okay… - She seems calmer now.

So we took our way to the main road to west, in an old truck that the Militia said to be broken, luckily me and Zenna fix it and asked if we could keep him, they seem no trouble at all with that, the tank got enough ragnite for a week or two.

- But wait a second! – Said Nenah.

- What?

- Didn't you said that we need to register ourselves to become an official War pack?

- Yeah, i did!

- Than why didn't we done this when we were at the Militia HQ?

- Because, according to one of the officers in the Militia HQ, we need at least 20 people to be registered as an official war pack.

- Ahh, i see… and we're going to get some volunteers, am i right?

- Yep! There is a town around this parts that may come to our cause, we should be able to see it after passing this hill there.

- And did you guys already though of a name?

- Not yet, my brother wants the war pack to have enough people before giving a name to it.

- This if we can even get this many people your brother is thinking of, look at the town.- Said Mannar pointing his finger in the direction of the town.

The town is burning to ashes, and screams can be heard from a distance, the Empire flags can be seen too.

- Well, we better get going. we don't want our future companions dead, do we?


	6. Chapter 5: The war pack rises

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 5: The war pack rises

We were just some miles from the town, but as long as we could see it, it was under attack by a Imperial squad, we couldn't understand the situation, how did they got in this side of the country? Maybe they have used their nay and secreted landed north, and came through the woods here to establish a base on the town, so that they could siege Randgriz from both sides, they only got one problem, we just found out their plan…

"Now, what we're gonna do?" Asked Zig reloading his machine gun.

"First we need to see the situation more clearly." Said Nazir checking on his equipment, looks like he was ready for action.

"Well, i guess you're right, we will go to the town than to see the how is the situation down there and we'll be back soon" I said it while preparing my rifle for action.

"You just read my mind!" Said Nazir while sharpening his knife.

So Nazir and i infiltrated the town, it was a real mass, chaos looked like to rein every corner of the town, people crying wounded, children running around trying to find their parents before the imperial find them, it was like if i was living a nightmare, although i really didn't wanted to watch those things any longer, it became one of the things that still gave me strength to continue this fight against the Empire, the suffering of the innocents reminded me that i needed to finish that as quickly as possible, and i wasn't going to give up so easily.

After some running around town we found the rebels location in the town, they were being held off by some of the citizens of the town, all that they had were old model rifles, some ammunition and a few grenades from the First Great War, if they were planning to hold off the imperial soldiers, they were not going to last long. We decided to go up in one of the buildings of the city to see a better view from the street were the citizens and the imperials, the building was partly destroyed, meaning that they should have a tank around, we got even more careful crouching and getting our heads lower at any explosion sound, we stopped right at the window of the third floor.

"Well, this doesn't seem right." Said Nazir while looking through the binoculars.

"What? Is there anything wrong?" i asked.

"I've found their tank, it's a small type C, but it looks like it's not moving."

"Do you think it's out of ragnite?"

"I doubt it, the ragnite tank is glowing strong as hell" Which means that probably the tank was full of ragnite.

"So what could it be?"

"I'm not sure, here, take a look" Said Nazir while passing me the binoculars.

"Well, could it be a trap, but still don't make any sense since there is not another strong armed force around here and i don't think that they know we are here either"

"Wait a minute… I know those emblems, they're starters!" Said Nazir, really surprised by the emblems.

"The emblems? Starters? What do you mean?"

"When i was enslaved by the Empire a year ago, i've learned some things in the concentration camp that i was brought to. See the emblems in the shoulders of the soldiers?" Nazir said while pointing at the imperials. "Those clean knives emblems means that they are starters, in other words, this is their first mission, they're probably here to pass some test showing their capabilities, in times of war they use the enemy's weakest towns to test them."

"And let me guess, one of the priorities here is to make sure that the commander come back safe, right?"

"Yes! What means that the commander could be on the tank!"

"_What a bunch of idiots! They are so scared to fail this stupid test that they left the tank unguarded in the back of all the squad, too bad that their precaution will be the reason that they'll be defeated." _I thought to myself.

"Nazir, in other words, if we kill the commanding officer they'll have no choice but to retreat, right?"

"Since this is more like a test to them than the actual war, yes, i think it is! And also, if they don't we may be able to use their tank against them."

"Okay… I think i got a plan! Quick, let's get back to the others!"

After our conversation we managed to get back from the town meeting the others at the near woods, where we hided the truck and everyone was waiting.

"Brother! Are you two okay?" Said Zanna, she looked really worried, maybe she didn't like the idea of us risking our lives entering a town in the middle of a siege from the imperials… Again!

"We're alright! And we also know how to get rid of those imperials!" After i said that i had to stop and take some breath, because i was so tired from running back.

"Really? How?" Said Nanah, it seems that she is really surprised that we came with something in such a little time.

Everyone reunited in a circle so that we can talk about the plan. The plan is the following: At the moment, the Imperial squad is at a narrow street with buildings that are at least 4 floors high, and the tank is just right behind them, we think is best to get Nazir in the building to the east and Zig would be in the on to the west, remembering them that is best to keep moving every two shots they give, so they will keep moving for floor to floor, causing a confusion in the frontline of the imperials, while this me and Mannar are going to get by the side of the truck from east and try to hijack the tank and use in our favor in case they don't fallback when we've killed the commanding officer.

"But, what about if they have some guards hidden nest to the tank to prevent anyone from coming next to it?" Asked Nanah.

"That's where you and Zanna enter, Nanah!" I said while pointing at both of them.

"What do you mean Neroh?" Asked Zanna.

"While we were there searching for the location of the tank i saw with the binoculars that there is a ragnite storage to the northeast, i only need that you two go there, and take out only one ragnite container, explode him and this might get the attention of the any units that may be hidden next to the tank, they may get away from it to check what was it and if they are in a small number like four or five, i want you guys to take them out but from cover and hidden, okay?"

"Got it! But brother, why just one ragnite container?"

"Because although we want to save this town, after this battle the citizens will need any ragnite that they can get to repair the town itself."

"Oh… right." She responded, lowering her head.

"Ok! Let's go than, let's try our best to save this town!"

"All right!" Everyone shouted at the same time.

We all moved into the town, and stopped at a point southwest of the building were Nazir would be, if anything goes wrong or the plan fail we are supposed to get back to this point and then retreat. Zanna and Nanah were already going to their positions…

"Wait!" I shouted to both of them.

"What?"

"Be careful you two."

"Don't worry, we'll be just fine!" Said Zanna Smiled to me. "Isn't it right, Nanah?"

"Y- yes!" Said Nanah, just a little blushed.

After that we've parted ways, Nazir and Zig were already on their positions, Mannar and i were behind the building, just waiting for the explosion, rifles and machine guns loaded, everyone ready and focused…

*BOOM*!

"That's it!" I've turned my head to see if the explosion was on the northeast.

"Okay! Nazir, Zig, now!" They both start to fire and help the citizens that are trying to hold off the imperial squad.

"Let's go Mannar!"

"Okay!" Said Mannar eagerly.

I think that it was a good choice to choose Mannar over Nazir, although Nazir is better when it comes to sneaking and assassinations, Mannar was big and tough, if the guys in the tank knew that we were trying to get inside and hold the tanks hatch, Mannar could easily open it, and if the soldiers in the frontline notice that we were trying to get into the tank, he could just get the person that was closest to the tanks hatch and pull him out extremely fast with just one hand.

Afterwards, Nanah and Zanna were right! As we slowly approached the tank, from the bushes behind the truck some soldiers go running to the east.

"_I hope they'll be safe" _I thought to myself.

We got close enough to the tank, Mannar gave me a boost and i got up, i helped him up and as fast as he could he opened the tanks door and i shot with my rifle, three bullets were enough, one for the commander and two for the driver, dead in a eyes blink. The strange part of all this is that the frontline didn't heard a thing, i guess the sound from the shoots from Nazir and Zig covered the sound of my shots.

I actually don't know how to operate and tank, but Mannar said that when he was at the university he made a turret class that included tanks cannons.

"Can you shoot with this thing?"

"Yes! But there is a little problem, this Model don't came with a targeting system!" Which would allow him to measure the distance of his target without any calculation. "You'll have to see the things from up there and say to me were the targets are!"

"_Well, it's quite some time since i did this kind of calculations, but i guess i can do something here!" _I thought to myself.

"Okay! Here goes nothing… 22,5 degrees; 3,4 centimeters to the right! Fire!"

Mannar positioned the cannon and fire it! The first hit disbanded the soldiers and confused them, some seconds later we see the soldiers fleeing to the west, into the mountains, but it still not over, i can hear the sound of gun fire from the east, Zanna and Nanah are in trouble!

I got out of the tank and screamed to Nazir.

"Nazir! See if you can see the position on the enemy in the point of Zanna and Nanah and give me the location!

He gave me the location, i told Manar and he shot it, perfect shot! The enemy is now completely disbanded! Some minutes later the citizens of the town came out of their hiding spots and came to greet and thank us, after we talked about our situation we asked for new recruits, and surprisingly we got over fifty recruits, i never expected the war pack to get this big so fast, thanks to our plan, now we had a tank to, it's kind of a bad shape but me and my sister will work on it! What it's more funny of all this is that out of the fifty recruits we got, forty were darcsens, and that's when was decided, the name of our war pack, The darcsen brotherhood!

After a night of sleep, we prepared ourselves to move, although i thought that it would be a big problem since we didn't had a driver for the tank, at least that was what i thought of, Nanah stepped forward and said that she could drive the tank, she said she made a class while in highschool, well that was great! So we've thanked the citizens for the extra ragnite they gave us for the truck and the tank and we headed west to look for the Imperial soldiers that fled last night, while we were moving, me, Mannar, Zig and Zanna were on the truck…

"Is she going to be okay?" I asked to Mannar, because apparently Zanna was injured at the last battle, and i was sick worried!

"She's going to be fine" Mannar Said while he putted bandages on her arm. "It's just a wound on her arm, don't worry, the bullet didn't got stuck in it."

"That's good to hear!" I said while Passing my hand in my forehead, shaking of the sweat.

"Sorry brother, i guess i massed up a little." After saying that, she got her head down and got a sad expression to her face.

"Hey, don't worry! At least you still alive, and you managed to hold off the imperials together with Nanah, I'm really proud of you!" I said letting a small laugh out an petting her in the head, she turned to me with a mad face, like she was going to scream at me again.

"Thanks!" she immediately turns her mad face into a smile, looking much appreciated for the compliment.

While we were in the middle of some laughs Zig turns his head to me.

"But i gotta say Neroh! You are a really good commander!"

"Thanks! Haha!"

"Good thing that i'm following you than other person, i might as well be dead by now if it wasn't you and your plans!"

"Well, tha-!" The truck made a sudden stop that almost made us go flying out of the truck.

I got up and saw that everyone in the line marching has stopped.

"What is going on here?"

One of the recruits looked at me.

"I don't know sir, looks like something is on the road."

I looked at the tank just a few meters ahead and i saw Nazir getting out by the hatch of the gunner.

"Hey! Neroh! There is someone wounded at the road!"

"What?"

One second after this i see Nanah getting out of the tank, looks like she is looking at the wounded person, after some seconds e only heard her scream in desperation…

"Gin!"

"I guess we just found her brother!"


	7. Chapter 6: The wounded soldier

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 6: The wounded soldier

The plan was simple, we were going after the fleeing imperials to know where their warship was hiding at, but in our way we've found a wounded militia soldier, not only just a militia soldiers, it appears that this soldier is Gin, Nanah's brother who was said to be lost-in-action by the Militia. If we got back to the town right now we wouldn't be able to find out where is their warship, In the other hand if we had continued our pursuit of the imperial soldiers, Gin could die as he seemed to be in a serious condition. I had no other choice, We've got back to the town.

As we got back i asked some of the towns people to get some medicine-based ragnite, although experimental, it seemed really effective when it comes to quickly wounded treatment, we got ourselves in a building and i ordered Mannar to treat Gin immediately, i also ordered that Zig and Nazir with more eight man to return to the Militia HQ to warn them that we've founded their lost soldier.

Although everything was going well, the whole situation seemed to be a terrible nightmare to Nanah, she hold his hand the whole process.

"Is he going to be okay?" I asked Mannar.

"Yeah, he's going to be fine, he just need some rest." After Mannar said that, Nanah seemed relieved and let he's hand go.

After some time it was already noon, and i was in one of the buildings balconies just thinking to myself, something in Gin seemed wrong for me, i mean, he was a man of normal stature, just a little smaller than me, he had a clear skin, almost pale, and his hair was kind of spike, but the strange thing is that he has brown hair, and still he has a darcsen name…

"He has a darcsen name but doesn't look like darcsen." I turned my head to see who was talking, it was Nanah!

"That was what you were thinking, right?"

"S- sorry… I just couldn't help myself though"

"I know, it's okay." She walked by my side and supported herself against the balcony's fence.

"You know Neroh, when i was little me and my parents moved to Fouzen." She said while looking to the starry sky.

"Isn't that the mining city?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Well, my father moved from there, and sometimes he told me and my sister some stories about him and his friends"

"Oh! I see…" She looked down to the street

An awkward silence followed up for some seconds, i had to say something, anything!

"But by what i heard from him, it must've being a hard time to live there, right?"

"Well, sometimes it was, but i've also had made many friends, sometimes i had them to support me, so i didn't really cared for others saying things about me and the persecution."

"_Oh, right! Fouzen is the town with the most number of Darscsens in the whole country of Galia."_ I thought to myself.

"So… One day, one of the drills that were used to make the tunnels for mining overheated and exploded, a house that was really closed to the tunnel collapsed, there were three people living there, some people from the town tried to help in the rescue, although they saved them, two of them didn't make it, only one survived, and her was a little boy."

"So, you mean that-" I was interrupted by her.

"Yes! Gin was the little boy! Although he was not really happy for being with a darcsen family, he managed to accept this fact over the years. One day i was trying to get some medicine for my dad who was pretty sick, but the pharmaceutical didn't want to sell them to me because i was a darcsen, he said that 'it would be better that all the darcsens vanished from the land once and for all'. After hearing that, Gin came into the drugstore and almost got into a fight with the pharmaceutical, but in the end he gave in the medicine."

"Well, he seems to be a great brother hun?"

"Yes, and after being so much time with us, he changed his name, he used to be Alexander Armenius, and now he's Gin."

After some more conversation between us, Mannar came running, almost without breath.

"He's awake!" Nanah didn't think twice, she got running down the stairs to get to the room were her brother is.

After a while of running we've finally made to the Gin's room, and when we got in front of the doorway we saw Gin, sitting in the bed getting his bandages off.

"Gin!" Nanah screamed while running in his direction with open arms.

She hugged him with all the strength that she had

"You idiot! You know how much worried i was about you?" She just keep screaming while crying at the same time.

"Nanah…" Said Gin in a very calm way.

"And may i know who this people are?" He asked Nanah while looking to me and Mannar.

"Oh, sorry, *sob*… This two are my friends, Neroh and Mannar, and Neroh have helped us a lot since we all meet, actually, if it wasn't for him, we would never be able to find you!"

"So i guess i am on a debt with you, thanks!" He said looking at me while letting out a smile.

"It was nothing!" after saying that everyone in the room lets out a good laught.

After that we just got ourselves in a room with some couches and chairs…

"So, can you tell us how did you got all the way here, to the north part of Galia? Since when we asked the militia recruitment director he said that you were lost-in-action in the enemy territory, that would be south of Galia…" I know it may sound a bit rude, but it still was too strange to find him in that side of the country.

He was quite for a while…

" In one of the last missions, i got promoted to commanding officer of squad 12 of the Militia, we were on a mission where we were supposed to hold off the imperials while the towns guard get the civilians out of the town, things gone totally wrong, many of my squad were injured and could not fight back. So i gave the order for them to retreat while i hold them off, i grabbed a heavy machine gun that was closed to me and started shooting from the second floor of a building near the towns entrance. In the end they captured me and kept me months torturing me, after they saw that they wouldn't get anything for me they decided to execute me in their capital as a sign of their power over Galia, they were going to use me as an example for anyone that contradicted them, when i was being transported to a imperial battleship i saw the chance to escape, i took it, killing two of the guards that were transporting me i ran away from the wagon and made the imperials lost sight of me, but i was still too tired from all the tortures that couldn't run anymore and passed out, the last thing i know, i wake up in a room where i was being treated by some soldiers."

"Why did you do that? I was really worried about you!" Nanah screamed at him.

"Sorry…" He said while lowing his head down, it looked like he was having some negatives thoughts.

"But at least you survived." I said it.

"And you posses a quality that many commanders lacks of."

"And that would be?" He asked looking me.

"You decided to stay and fight to give enough time for your troops to escape, risking your own life for the sake of others, that is a quality that i respect very much!"

"Neroh…" Said Nanah, with an air of admiration.

"Thanks! I just wished that i knew were my armband is."

"Arm band?" Asked Zanna.

"Yes, an armband that i had, with darcsen colors, given to me by our father"

"You mean this?" I pulled an armband out of my pocket.

"Were did you find it?"

"It was just some meters away from where we've found you, here, take it." I extended my arm towards him.

"Thanks!" He said while grabbing the armband from my hand.

Nobody could explain that moment that we just stood there looking in each other's eyes, but we knew that was a sign meaning that we respected each other.

The next morning Nazir, Zig and the man are back with squad 12 right behind them, after sometime everyone was relieved that their commanding officer was okay, sme of them thanked us for finding him. After some time, two scouts from the squad 12 that we're send to find out the location of the imperials battleship have come back, they founded him, now we got even more chances to take them down, we had 2 tanks, and a total of at least 74 people to fight them off, without excitation, the war pack marched fallowing the militia squad that was showing the way, after two hours marching, we've finally made it to the location of the battleship, from a cliff near the beach we could see the imperials landing more forces and supplies…

"Wow! It's huge!" Said Zig, really surprised by seeing a battleship for the first time.

"Yeah, it is, and it's not going to be easy to take him, are you all ready?" I shouted to the entire warpack.

They all raised their pistols, rifles and machineguns, screaming in excitement.

"**YES SIR!"**

This is the time, the time to show the imperials all the power of the darcsen brotherhood, to show them that it's no playing around when fighting us!

**Authors note: Thanks for all the support from Spinnerweb, and thanks for your authors note ;)**


	8. Chapter 7: Victory paid by blood

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 7: Victory paid with blood

We were all excited to start the battle, we were going to prove that every darcsen citizen of Galia was worth their pride, but this was no easy battle, the militia squad took the lead, charging in to the beach, we tried to cover ourselves as good as possible using the big rocks that were in the beach. Two hours later and the fight still goes on, i guess we've underestimate the imperials this time, many of the militia have fallen, and also soldiers from the warpack were falling too, many of them seriously wounded, i wasn't going to let any more of my man suffer, i gave the other for the mortar troops on the cliffs near the beach to throw the smoke grenade to give us cover on our retreat.

After the smoke got up in the air, i gave the retreat signal and both the militia and warpack retreated back to the forest, from the distance, while many of us helped giving support for the injured, we could hear the imperials cheering and cursing our troops, seeing them in that condition was a terrible sensation for me, all that i want was to such the mouth of those damn imperials, Saying "darcsen pigs"" or things like "go back to the mud whole that you came and stay there!", i was just burning of rage in the inside.

As we got back in an improvised camp we made, me, Zanna, Nanah, Mannar, Nazir, Zig and Gin were trying to trace a plan so that we could take over that warship and stop the imperials, unfortunately, all the plans we came with would cost a lot of our soldiers lives, and that is one thing that me and Gin were not going to give up at, i passed the whole night trying to find a way to take the warship.

"Hey brother! Are you okay?" I looked behind me, it was Zanna.

"Ha? Oh! Zanna, i'm just fine, i just need to get a plan ready do that we can take that ship." After that i got out a big yawn.

"Well, you should at least have some rest right?"

I stood still for a moment, looking up at the night skies.

"Zanna, you know what i felt like?"

"hmm?" She seemed confused.

"What i felt like when we were retreating and those bastards started to make fun of us?"

"I know Neroh… I know…"

"I just want to crush those imperia bastards! No metter what! I know that tomorrow we'll make them eat those words, we'll show them our pride!" I said while shaking my fist in the air.

"Well, you may think of that, but how can we have a leader to lead us in battle when he is all sleepy? Just go take some rest brother…" She said while she holds my fist down with her hands.

"Okay, i'll just go to sleep than."

After that i've gone to sleep, not a good night of sleep, since i was so worried with that warship. The next morning i woke up, i was walking next to some tends to see how the members of the warpack were going, their wounds seemed to heal up pretty fast and well, maybe that's the power of the darcsen pride.

After i've done looking how the members of the warpack were feeling, i was going to the armory tend (a little tend full of weapons, ammo, explosives and ragnite) to get some more ammo for my rifle, and there was Zig talking to some other members of the warpack that were the same age as him…

"But i'm saying guys, this kind of model of machine gun is the best so far, the fire power and control when you're shooting is the best!" Said one of the members of the warpack.

"You may say that but, the Albatros-50 heavy machine gun still lacks in overheating, i mean, you can fire with her for 20 seconds than she jams because of the overheating, it's not so perfect at all." Said Zig, it looks like that he know something about guns…

But that also gave me an idea, it was like getting punched in the face by your best friend, it's fast and you're not expecting that.

"That's it!" I shouted while pointing my finger up to the sky, like i did the discovery of all times, it might not look like but sometimes i have some clown times.

I didn't thought twice and ran to the main tent, that was placed in the middle of the camp, and called everyone to meet me there immediately, i literally ran tent by tent, trying to find were Zanna, Gin and all the others were, it took some time, but in the end i managed to gather them up in the main tent.

"So, why did you gather us here?" Asked Gin.

"Did you had an idea for taking the ship?" Asked Nanah, looking towards me with an excitement face.~

"Maybe, but i'll need the blueprints for the imperials cruiser, given the situation you may have one with you here right Gin?

"Yes, i can get them to you right now!" Said Gin, running back to his tent to get the blueprints.

When he got back, i opened the blueprint on the ground and asked everyone to approach so that i could tell them about my idea.

"So Gin, i've heard that cruisers are almost invincible, their armor is almost impenetrable and their guns are incredibly strong when it comes in fire power."

"Yeah, i don't know why you are stating the obvious here…" He said looking at me showing a confusing expression.

"But they do have one weakness, every machine, no matter what type, they always fail when it comes to overheating ore overloading."

"So?" Asked Gin.

"So… What about if we overload their ragnite tank and wait for to overheat the engine of the ship? We could use it the explosion as a distraction and discourage the imperials and take the chance to take over the ship"

"Well, this plan seems fine, but how will someone get on to it, it still seems too risky."

"Simple, I've seen a rock on the beach, that if we could make the ship move next to it, it should get really close to a side window-hatch."

"So, say what the plan is!" Said Nazir while cleaning his sniper rifle.

"Well, were going to attack them, and while the troops distract them, the mortar teams on the cliff will make the ship moving forward by shooting at his back part, after that well just order them to get out of there and hide back at the forest before the ship can fire back at them. When the ship gets in the right position, Mannar will get up in the rock and wait for me."

"M- me? But what if they shoot me?" Mannar said, looking totally scared.

"Don't worry, that's why well have two mortars ready hidden behind some of the rocks on the beach, when i give the signal, they'll shoot some smoke grenades to cover you on the rock, and if it's not enough, i'll put Nazir on the other cliff next to the beach to take out anyone on the ship that notices you." After i said all that, Mannar seemed calmer, he shook his head up and down, meaning that he got his part on the plan.

"So… After Mannar goes to the rock… What will happen next, Neroh?" Asked Nanah

"I'll be carrying a back full of ragnite heal packs, i'll run towards Mannar, he'll give me some boost and i'll jump through the window-hatch, than i'll use the ragnite heal packs to overload the ragnite tank of the ship and hope that it will overheat the ships motor, until it blows up, and while i'm on it, i'll try to get the side bridge of the ship down so that you guys can get in. So… ? What do you guys think?" After saying that, i was expecting to see jaws hitting the ground, but this time, only Gin looked shocked like that.

"Do you really expect us to fallow a plan like this? There not even a guarantee that you'll succeed just at passing through that tiny window-hatch! And even if you did, i don't even know if the ragnite tank will overload with just a handful of ragnite!"

For some seconds, the main tent stays quite as the night with no nature around.

"Well, the boy may have some of the craziest plans, but in the end, they all work just fine!" Said Nazir.

"I have to agree with Nazir with this one." Said Mannar

"Yeah! No matter how crazy it looks like, it always work, because it's Neroh that is in command!" Said Zig

"All the plans my brother had made so far have being good and successful, i don't see how this one wouldn't work!" Said Zanna.

"But are you guys sure? I mean, i don't know what kind of situation you guys have passed, but this seems over the limi-" Gin was interrupted by Nanah that hold his hand and shook her head sideways, meaning that he should just give up already and accept the plan too.

"Brother, you just should accept the plan already, all the time we though with Neroh was by his plans, if it wasn't for him, we would never had made it this far" Didn't i tell you?

Gin was going to say something, but he hesitated, instead he just lowered his head down and shook his head sideways, like he didn't believe that he was going to agree to that, after that he raised his head and looked me in the eyes.

"All right, i'll fallow you're plan, when can we begin?" Even though he had agreed to fallow the plan, in his eyes it's possible to see that he don't believe that it's going to work.

After that we gather the militia and the warpack and explained the plan to them, of course that some of them were against the plan, but we convinced them otherwise.

The time was set perfectly, at 11 a.m. we charged, again some troops tried to get some cover in the rocks on the beach. After some minutes exchanging fire with the imperials i gave the signal to the mortar group at the cliff, as soon as the mortar rounds hit the back part of the cruiser, it has started to move forward, good thing i ordered them to get as fast as they shot, because i was right, they fired back with the main canons, after that i just waited for him to get almost to the position, when it got close enough i send the signal to the troops with the mortars in the battlefield, they fired the smoke grenades and Mannar got himself already in position, and as expected from Nazir, he took out every single one that had tried to shoot Mannar.

"**Go! Now!" **Mannar said it.

"Brother! Be careful!" Said Zanna while i ran pass by her.

When i got next to Mannar, he got both his hands together and i steeped on it, he them throws me away like a rocket, what strength!

I made into the cruiser okay, it looks like that there is no one down here, but i better hurry, because maybe one of the imperials on the deck have saw me jumping into the ship. I started searching for the ragnite tank, i found it in only some seconds, i opened my bag and throw it every single ragnite heal pack that i had in the bag, after that i just got up to escape the explosion and hoped that the explosion would happen.

For the relief of everyone, it worked, the explosion was so strong that two of the three main cannons blew up, even if they escaped in this occasion, they wouldn't had enough firepower left to rejoin their armada, but this was unlikely to happen to, because the engines also got destroyed on the explosion. One of the most strange things that happened it was that i could pass through the deck freely, nobody seemed to notice me, it's like that they are more worried about the explosion than an intruder in the ship. Being so. I just walked to the bridge controls and pulled the lever that allowed the bridge to low herself, in a blink of an eye, the cruiser is taken over by our troops and the militia, the imperials immediately surrendered, it seems that the battle is over.

"Yeah! We did it again!" Said Zig, jumping in happiness.

"Well, i guess i own you an apology" Said Gin a little ashamed for what he said early.

"I said to you that we would win!" Said Nanah to Gin.

I just started scratching the back of my head and laughed a little.

*bang* *bang*

"**Sniper! Take him down!" **Said Mannar, in the same time, Nazir took him down with just one shot to the head.

"Damm imperial, could have hit one of us" Said Zig

After that, immediately, Zanna show herself running in the ships bridge, she looks at me…

"Brother, are you ok-!" She just stood there, looking at me with a pale face, she looked like terrified.

"Brother… your… your belly…" She said while pointing at me.

I looked down, at the same time i got in shock! I was bleeding, that sniper must've hit me, although i didn't felt nothing at the time, but now that i've noticed, my legs begun to shake, i fall down on my knees, than i fall with my face directly hitting the ground, my vision was blurred and getting darker, and a sudden cold hit my spine, all that i could hear was the words of my friends and my sister…

"**Please! Mannar, help him!" **Said Zanna

"**Damn it! Neroh, Stay with me Neroh! C'mon!**

"**What is happening?" **Said Nanah

"**I think he's losing consciousness!"**

That was the last thing that i've heard before i've lost consciousness… last thing i know i was in one of my memories about me, my sister and my father, back to the time where we were just two little kids.

"_**Okay! And that's how you fix a binoculars!" **_Said my father.

"_**Wow, thanks dad! Do you think one day i'll be able to fix and create thing like you do?" **_I said.

"_**Of course you can son! If you try your best, you can do whatever you want!"**_

"_**Me too! Me too! Right daddy?" **_Asked Zanna, jumping to get to our father's lap.

"_**Of course! How could i forget my little princess!"**_

"_**ha ha ha ha ha…" **_At this time, we're all Just having a good laugh.

I remember this time, it was a summer morning and we were bored with nothing to do, so our father showed us some of his work and taught some things to us both, that was a good day, we were having so much fun…

After that i woke up intensively, like i was having some kind of nightmare, before i could say anything i just saw Mannar at the entrance of the tent screaming out loud.

"He's awake! He's awake!"

After that i just felt like the earth was moving, at first i thought that it was an earthquake, but then i noticed that there was no earthquake, it was steeps, like the steeps a crowd running, them i turned to the entrance and i saw Zanna she was crying, her face showed how surprised she was, she just stood there for some moments…

"Neroh…"

After saying that she just ran into my direction and jumped on my, while in mid-air she opened her arms and when she landed she hugged me, i must say that she never hugged me with such a strength before.

"Neroh… You stupid idiot! I always tell you to be careful in the battlefield and you let something like that to happen… Wwwwwhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaa! She just keep crying and crying for some time.

"Sorry that i got you so worried Zanna" I said while holding my hand on top of her head, but getting my arm in a position like i was hugging her.

"Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!..." She just kept saying that while she give me little 'punches'(if you can call it that, they were barely strong) in my chest.

"But… *sob* at least you're alive *sob*…" At this moment she just stopped hitting me and she leans forward and gets her forehead against my chest, i just kept quite while she finished what she was saying…

"I'm really proud of you *sob*" She said that while she raised her head and looked at me with a big smile on her face, while petting me in the head.

"You…" I just remembered that this is the same way i treated her after one of the missions we've done, it's seemed like that she's trying to be more mature, even though, she didn't even wiped her tears off, she just stood there looking at me, waiting me to say something in response.

"Thank you!" I just said it while letting out a big smile.

We both started to laugh a little.

After that everyone entered the tent, and they all looked more relieved now that i was okay, especially Nanah, she seemed to be crying a lot by the look on her face.

"But i must say, you're a lucky bastard, i was almost sure that you had no way to survive that shot" Said Mannar

"What are the possibilities?" I asked him.

"Well, you had a 10% of chance to survive"

"Well, i guess that 10% just worth it as good as 100%"

I think that telling a little joke would lift a little the heavy air that was made by the situation i've passed through, i guess it worked, because everyone starts to laugh and the warpack was just cheering when i got out of the tent.

After all, we've won, we even got one of the two tanks that were in the cruiser.

"Take this as a thanks for making the plan a success and winning the day for us" That's what Gin said to me.

So i didn't refused, in this times, any type of artillery is welcome, but the good thing is that we had a new tank to ad o our little "army", but the bad news came later when i talked to Nazir, he said that four of our man died in the battle, a dark and sad mood got every member of the warpack, we were going to honor these man as they helped to defend their home and families. We got back to the town from where we have gone to find the warship, we delivered the bodies to the families, a night of mourning took place, the next morning, we prepared a special gift for those that had fallen so bravely for their home, we made a big tombstone written "here lies four heros of the darcsen brotherhood, shall they forever be remembered for they fight to protect their home."

The next morning, we were living the town, the people didn't get angry with us because of the dead members, they cheered us when we left, shouting to us messages of "have a safe trip" and "thanks for everything" we waved our hands saying goodbye to them, while passing the same hill were we once saw the destrotion of that same town, now we're going back to the militia HQ, to rest a little, after all, it had being a really full week…


	9. Chapter 8: Neroh's past

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 8: Neroh's past

After a while coming back to the militia's north HQ from the town we were, we've finally made it back, the militia gave us good medical treatment, ammo, supplies, they've repaired our tanks and they gave us temporary tents inside the base so that we could rest some days an fill all the procedures to finally be an official warpack!

I was just wandering around trying to get our "loot" from part of the rebel warship to one of the tents that the milita had provided us, while i was doing this, Zanna and Mannar were helping me, although they were really heavy boxes, Zanna wanted to help, so i just let her get the small ones, the ones that weren't so heavy. While we were doing this, a familiar silhouette approached us, when it came closer we saw that was Isara, the daughter of General Gunther.

"Isara!" Zanna shouted.

"Hi Zanna!" Said Isara while smiling. "Oh, and hi to you too Neroh."

"Long time no see, Isara." I said.

We stopped for some minutes to talk, and then a man approached us…

"Ah, brother! The tank is going well, it just need a refill of ragnite."

"Brother? So, you must be welking, right?" I asked him.

"And you are?" He asked me.

"Oh, this is Neroh, and this is his sister, Zanna." Said Isara.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Welkin Gunther, but i think you already knew that." Said Welkin while extending his hand in front of me to shake hands.

"So, i guess you did get on time to Bruhl hun?" I said. "Good thing, because we've heard that Isara wouldn't left the mansion without her brother."

"Well, she can be kind of stubborn sometimes."

We chatted after a while and found out Welkin was the seventh squad commanding officer, and his deeds on the operation on Vasel Bridge. After that we, went back to organizing the supplies…

Than the day had passed and it was already afternoon…

I was talking with Captain Eleanor Varrot, filling in some documents to make our warpack official, when Nanah appeared in the room, she looked really tired, exhausted for running so much, i think she was looking after me.

"Neroh! Hurry, come with me! Something is going on next to the camp!" She said.

After she said that, me and Catain Eleanor fallowed her to the camp, when we got there that was the scene we observed: A man from the third militia squad was having a fight with Zanna, and things did not look well, also, Isara and Alicia were there too, defending her.

"Why did you darcsens have to stay here too? You'll only get us more trouble in the war against the empire!" The soldier said.

"Why do you hate the darcsens so much? Why do you have to pick on me?" Said Zanna.

"You dare to question me you little brat?" He got his fist up ready to punch her.

Before he could hit her, i got in the way, ending up with a punch on my stomach.

"Brother!" Screamed Zanna.

Before he could get his arm back i hold him with my left hand and looked at him.

"You must have… some stupid reasons to… hate darcsens so much…" I said, almost out of breath because of the punch. "But now… you got a reason… for one to hate you!" I looked up and as fast as i could move i punched him right in his chin with my right hand, what made him go flying two meters away from where he was.

"You dammed darcsen! You're gonna pay for this!" He got up and started running in my direction.

"You! Stop right there!" Shouted Captain Eleanor.

" For attacking a warpack soldier will be jailed for five weeks in the militia's solitary, we'll not accept this kind of behavior against a fellow soldier!" She said.

Without saying one word, the soldier gave himself up and got arrested, being taking by two other soldiers to the solitary. I thanked Captain Eleanor and Alicia for the help, after a small talk with Alicia we've also had find out that she was at Welkin's squad together with Isara.

It's night time now and Nanah and Zanna have got to the seventh squad barricades with Alicia and Isara, i guess they wanted to know everyone else, while me, Nizar, Mannar and Zig, were talking to Welkin, know a little more about the militia base and some of the soldiers.

After that i was sitting on the ground next to a fire someone have made, i've heard someone coming from my, i turned to see who was, it was Nanah, she looked like she was freezing to death.

"Ca- can i sit next to you" She said, with a trembling voice.

"Of course!"

She than sit next to me and leaned forward while extending her hands in the direction of the fire, that night was really a freezing one. After sometime, she was now warmed up, she looked at me with the most gentle eyes i've ever seen in my life, she was looking really cute.

" you know, Neroh…" She said. "I've told you things of my life already, i don't know if this sounds rude or anything but… Could you tell me a little about yourself?"

"There's no problem, so… What would you like to know?" I asked her.

"hmm… Let's see… Oh! How about your hair? I mean, why is it so big?" She said, the well she said made sound like i has a really long hair, but it's not like that, i guess she thought that way because my hair is very bulky.

Without knowing she actually had opened a door to a story that only me, my sister and our long deceased father know.~

"Nanah… I'm going to tell you a story, that only Zanna and me knows now… When i was little, me, my sister and i lived in a small town next to the borders of Galia, were our borders met the borders of the empire. One morning, i woke up and heard screams, i looked outside and it was an imperial squad, they were capturing darcsens as slaves and burning the houses down. The next thing i saw was my dead running through the house in my direction and grabbing me by the hand while in the other arm he was carrying Zanna, that was still sleepy, the bad thing is that when we were just some steps from the forest, he got shoot in the arm and left my hand, he didn't had other choice in the time so he ran away, and i was captured by the imperial squad."

"Oh my! I didn't knew this…" She said while covering her mouth with both if her hands

"well, after i was captured, i was sent to a concentration camp, and there, i've begun to work until i get exhausted, i've passed some months there, and my hair begun to grow and grow, and they always sent us to cut them, but i felt like a rebel and always kept running from them when soldiers came to take me to the barber, i think i felt that, i was kind of fighting the empire for not respecting they're rules. After sometime, i've finally saw my chance to escape and i took it! I've regrouped with Zanna and my father when i was wandering by the capital almost with no water and food left, when they found me in a alley passed out, after that, i've kept my hair big, it felt like it was my mark that showed my will to fighting against the empire, you know what i mean?"

I looked to Nanah and she was watching the fire.

"Sorry for telling you all of this slipslop."

"No, i know what you mean…"

We started to talk for hours and hours, we talked about our lifes, we've told jokes to each other and even told some of our funny situations in life.

"You know Nanah, i fell good when i'm talking with you!"

"Me too, specially _because i li…_" She just started to whisper something.

"What was that?" I asked her.

"No- nothing!, a- anyway, i think it's already time for us to sleep, don't you think?"

"Oh, that's right! And to think it's already this late!"I got up from the floor and turned to my tent. "Well, good night" I said.

But after i could give my first step, Nanah pulled my hand and turned me to her direction, she then gave me a kiss in the cheek and after that said:

"Good night!" She said that while she started blushing, then she started to run in the opposite direction while i stood there, still, trying to understand what happened.

My heart is beating really fast, i don't seem to calm myself, i guess that there is no other answer, i was falling in love with Nanah, and that kiss she gave me in the cheek kept me wake for a long, long time.

The next morning, i woke up and i was going to check on our tanks repairing, i looked to the side and i saw Nanah, she looked at me but she started to blush and looked the other way.

"Go- good morning!" I said, a little nervous for what happened last night.

"G- goo- good morning!" she said, she looks even more nervous than me.

"Neroh!" Nazir appeared.

"Oh! What is it Nazir?"

"Captain Eleanor Varrot said to be looking for you, she asked me that if i found you to tell you to het to her office right away."

"Okay then, i'll do that."

After that, i've got my way to the captain's office, trying to forget for now what happened last night with Nanah. When i got to her office, she asked me to close the door and have a sit.

"What is the matter Captain Varrot?" I asked

"I know that you guys are not a official warpack of Galia, but still i need your help" She said. "It looks like that the Empire will try to make a hunt for slaves in a darcsen village not so far from here, squad one was already sent there, but i don't believe that they will be enough, so i'm sending squad seven as well."

"_Squad seven, isn't that Welkin's squad?_" I thought to myself.

"But just to be sure, i'll need a back up for them, that's when you enter, can you take the roll of being squad one and seven reinforcements?" She asked me.

"No problem! After all, that's why we formed a warpack!"

"Excelent! Then, i'll explain the situation for you…"

I guess we'll have more work hun? Then let's give it our best!


	10. Chapter 9: The Empire's nightmare

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 9: The Empire's nightmare

Accepting to help the Militia, i ordered the warpack to follow the seventh squad, we were going to support them and squad one as their reinforcements, i was told to talk to commanding officer Faldio Landzaat once we've got there.

The situation is apparently pretty intense this time, the Empire is invading this town to the south to capture some more darcsens as slaves, but Welkin told me that this town is also an important commercial point of Galia, most of the national treasure of Galia come from the taxation of this town, and now that we now this we have to stop the Empire from taking this town at all costs. If the Empire gets their hands in this town, all will be over, the government won't have enough funds to pay the Militia and the galian army, it would be the end of everything.

After some time marching we could see the town from the distance, It was a mess, people running around and gathering anything they could as fast as they can, they were being evacuated, it remembered me of Bruhl when the Empire was invading.

We approached the main square, and there was squad one with their tank, Welkin walked forward and greeted a man that appeared to be the commanding officer, Faldio Landzaat, i walked forward to their direction…

"Excuse me, are you the commanding officer of squad one, Faldio Landzaat?" He looked at me and said:

"Yes, that is me!"

"Nice to meet you, i'm Neroh, i was told to inform you the role of my warpack in this mission, we're going to be your reinforcements."

"Well, i'm glad! It's always good to have reinforcements for a thought battle like this one."

The time has passed, and we were discussing about the plan, and we needed to do it fast, because the imperial squad could get here anytime. The plan was that Welkin, having the best tank, would try to hold off the imperial squad, while Faldio would try to flank them from the right, if anything happened, we were supposed to get in action, half of us were going to help Welkin, with one tank, and the other half were going to flank the enemy from the left, with the other tank.

After that, we've got ourselves in position, putting barricades outside the town, were the imperial squad is suspected to appear, and in the main square, in case that things goes wrong so we can retreat to a more secured position. We waited for hours and hours, no one made a move, not a single word was spoken the entire time, when suddenly, we heard an explosion, i picked up a binoculars that i had next to me and saw in the distance, four small tanks, one medium class tank, and a total of thirty five high class soldiers, these was really going to be a trouble, this soldiers were veterans, the best the empire could give us, i fell the other battles that we've passed through are going to be nothing compared to this one, but no going back now, if we don't stop them here, is all over…

It has begun, the first shot was fired from the medium cannon of the imperial squad, both sides begun to exchange fire, they seem to be holding them off pretty well, i don't really know if we're even going to be needed for this battle, well, thats what i though…

"Neroh! Look over there!" Shouted Nazir.

I looked to the left, were he was pointing, and i saw a squad with 25 elites and one medium tank!

"There are more of them?" Said Zanna.

They were heading right on us, they were almost entering the town!

"Hurry! Point the cannons at their foot soldiers and fire! Give us some time to get a better position to stop them!" I ordered

Me, and about thirty of my soldiers followed me, together with Zanna, Nanah, Nazir, Mannar and Zig.

"Now listen to me everyone!" I talked while we were running in the direction of some buildings to make a proper defensive position. "We will need to hold them at the edge of the town! We have barricaded the main square, but without the Militia, we won't have power enough to hold them back! So we'll need to stop them right where they are!".

"But how are we going to do that?" Asked Zig.

"By taking out their tank! It seems to be that it is their commanding officer is in there!" I replied.

"But that tank is a B medium type, we can't take them out with just our lances! What will we do?" Said Zanna.

I actually didn't thought of that, i had no idea how we were going to take him out, it is one of the toughest tank type i've ever seen.

"Well, all the tanks, no matter how tough they are, they all have a weak spot!" Said Nazir.

"What do you mean?" Asked Nanah.

"The B Medium type tanks made by the Empire have a though armor, but it's too heavy to move around to fast, and also, the wheels are exposed, if you shoot the wheels, we'll may have a chance to destroy it from the underneath part of it!" Replied Nazir.

"Okay then! That's the plan! Three lancers are going to hide inside some buildings next to the edge of the town and when i order, you'll fire at the wheels of the tank! Got that?" I said

"Yes sir!" three lancers that were behind me answered.

"The rest of us, are going to hold them off in the town's edge!" I said

"Yes sir!" Everyone else answered.

We already started moving into position right outside the town's edge, and the lancers were already in their positions as well, the only problem is that the tank was in a position that they couldn't aim for its wheels, we would have to wait for the tank to get into a better position, but we didn't had that much time, we were being shoot down one by one out there, for our luck, commanding officer Faldio saw our situation and ordered one of his squad tanks to fire at the imperial tank, he turned to fire back, that was the chance we've being waiting for! I ordered at the same instant that the lancers should open fire. We've got him, we took out their tank, it was unbelievable, we've thought that now that their commanding officer was dead, they would retreat… but we were wrong. Instead of retreating, they kept firing at us!

"What the heck?" Mannar shouted.

"I thought that when the commanding officer falls, the order is to retreat, isn't that right?" Said Nanah.

"Maybe the commanding officer isn't there, maybe he is hiding somewhere nearby." Said Nazir.

"But where?" Said Zig.

"We better not think of this right now, let's move back to the main square right now!" I shouted.

We moved back to the main square, and things are not looking good for the Militia side either, they can't hold back the imperials for too long, and we can't help them because we're being hold in position by the other imperials, if we get out of the main square to help the Militia, we'll die for sure, i ordered the tanks to open fire to see if this would scared them away, it didn't work well, as they still holding their positions. But still, I and two other soldiers managed to sneak to a building that was close, we've got to the roof and begun to search for the imperial commanding officer with our binoculars, i looked in the direction of the forest to the north and in one of the trees i saw a something shining.

"I think he's there!" I pointed to the tree.

"Okay then! Sir, may i have the permission to take him out?" Asked one of the soldiers that was by my side, while loading a Kronos, a small rifle specialized to assassination missions, since it doesn't make too much sound when fired.

"Permission granted!" I replied.

The soldier then grabbed a scope and adjusted to the rifle, he shot, but he missed, he shot and misses again, when he shot the third time he look at the rifle with an angry expression.

"What is wrong with this thing?" He said. "Every time i shoot it misses, and i got the target in sight!"

"_The Kronos… is broken?"_ I thought to myself.

As i said those words, i was taken by my memories to the past, to the time i was a kid and i saw my father checking a Kronos…

"_**Dad, what is it? Is it broken?" **_I asked him.

"_**Hmm… Oh! It's you Neroh, no, it's not broken, it is in perfect state actually, you see, this morning a commanding officer of the army came to town asking me if i could fix this rifle for him, when i asked what was wrong with it he replied saying that it wasn't calibrated, he said that he got the target on sight, but every time he fired, the bullet always missed the target." **_He said.

"_**But dad, if it isn't broken, then why it doesn't hit the target?" **_I asked.

He then got up from his chair, he knelt down, looked to me and said:

"_**Son, listen careful now, okay? If one day you'll have to use this rifle, the Kronos, you must know that this rifle is made to assassination, it is especially projected to make the lowest possible noise, in the other hand, he loses his fire power and it bullets can't travel to a target that is too far away from you if you shoot with your sight directly at him, remember this, okay?" **_He said.

"_**Okay!" **_I replied while showing a smile.

The images in my head started to fade out as i heard the sounds of explosions and guns being fired.

"Pass me that rifle soldier!" I ordered him.

"Y- yes sir!" He replied.

Felling that the direction of the wind was going east, i adjusted my aim a little above the target and a little to the left, i was hoping that i would hid the target that way, i shot and waited two seconds to see if it was going to hit the target, after those two seconds, we heard someone screaming, and them the body of the commanding officer felt from the tree right to the floor.

"Yeah! We did it sir!"

"Wohooo! That's it! We've one!" Shouted the two soldiers that were with me.

At this rate, the soldiers that were firing at us stared to run away, we followed them until the edge of town, to make sure that no one stayed hiding behind. After that we've turned right, to help the Militia, but they don't seem to be in trouble anymore, the imperials there are fleeing as well, they managed to capture the B Medium type tank and captured some prisoners as well.

"Wohooo! Take that you imperial jerks!" Shouted Zig while jumping up and down.

"I can't believe that we pulled off back there!" Said Mannar.

"Well, looks like another job well done!" Said Nazir.

"Yeah! We won! We won!" Shouted both Zanna and Nanah while jumping up and down and hugging each other.

"Well, looks like you guys made it in one piece hun?" I turned my head and it was commanding officer Faldio.

"Oh, commanding officer Landzaat!" I said

"Please, no need for formalities, just call me Faldio."

Some hours have passed since the battle and we are on our way back to the HQ, we were just cheering our great victory, now we were confident. We made two imperial squads of elite soldiers retreat, we were certain to win this war at all costs.

**The same time at a conference room of the Empire's HQ on Galia.**

"Sir, we have some bad news" Said an imperial soldier.

"Speak then cadent!" Said a mysterious man.

"The attack to capture one of the towns next to the galian north base failed" Said the imperial soldier.

The mysterious man punched the wall after what the soldier said, the punch made a crater in the wall.

"This damn galians! It was the army or the Militia?" He asked.

"Well, it was the Militia and…"

"And who soldier?" Asked the mysterious man

"A warpack mostly made of darcsens sir!" Answered the soldier.

"Those brats that took my beautiful cruiser?" The mysterious man asked.

"Yes sir!" Said the soldier

"damn them! Next time i'll take care of them… next time, i'll make sure they pay dearly for what they've done to the Empire, and to me…"


	11. Chapter 10: Family reunion

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 10: Family reunion

Some days have passed after the great victory of the warpack allied with the Militia's forces, we have concentrated in rescue missions at this time, trying to save survivors of imperial attacks in nearby villages. In one of them we've found a girl that seemed to be related to Nazir a long time ago, her name is Lenna, and now she had joined us.

**Author's note: If you want to know more about the story of Lenna and Nazir, read "The Darcsen Lion".**

Everyone in the warpack seemed a little nervous by the fact that the Empire's hunting for darcsen slaves are getting growing more and more, some of them fear for their families that live in villages that are close to the border between the Empire's territory and Galia's territory.

We now ask for the help of the Militia intelligence to know where the last imperial slave hunters took the darcsens in the last village that we were on.

**10:00 a.m. Militia's North HQ, Captain Varrot's room.**

"Please Captain Varrot, I need help from the Militia's intelligence to know where the imperial slave hunters took the darcsens from the village in the mountains, if we are fast, we may still have a chance to reach them before they go back to their HQ." I said.

"Well, I'm not really sure about that, although the intelligence is from the Militia, permission to giving it must be granted by a superior officer of the galian army. To be exact we must first ask permission to the army officer responsible for this Militia HQ, General George von Damon. I'll do what I can to help you, but remember that I can't make any promises…" Captain Varrot said.

"Thank you very much Captain!" I said while shaking her hand.

After back out and looked to my left, Nazir and Lenna were coming in my direction…

"So, how did it go?" Nazir asked.

"Well, she said she'll try, but there is no guarantee that it will be possible" I said.

"What? Bu- but we need to rescue Zaki and the others that were taken by the slave hunters!" Lenna said while she pulls me by my sleeve.

"I'm sorry, but that is the best I can do for now. The Captain said she needs the permission of the army officer responsible for this Militia HQ, I think his name was… General George von Damon." I said.

"Damon? Oh boy, this is going to be difficult…" Someone said.

I turned around and saw the Commanding Officer of squad one, Faldio Landzaat.

"Oh! Commander Landzaat, I didn't saw you there…" I said.

"Please, no formalities, just call me Faldio." He said.

"Oh! Right…" I said while scratching the back of my head.

"But, what was that you were saying again?" Nazir asked.

Faldio looked outside by the window and said:

"General George von Damon, Commander of the central Gallian Army, just saying his name just gives me chills. He must be the most horrible person to be born in this world, he is full of himself and think that the Militia is just a burden for the Galian Army." Faldio said.

"Wow, so, in other words, this Damon guy means trouble, right?" Nazir asked.

"Exactly! Just pray that he may accept your request…" Faldio said.

He then crossed us and leaved the corridor. There were only the three of us there now, looking at each other's faces not knowing what was going to happen.

**04:30 p.m. Militia's Courtyard.**

When I was helping fixing the cannons of our tanks and trying to put a working heavy machine-gun in the truck, I saw Mannar, he was looking really said.

"Hey Mannar, are you alright?" I asked him.

"Hun…? Oh! Neroh, I- I'm fine… Sorry, but I have to go check on some soldiers now…" Mannar said while he walks away.

"He's probably worried about his daughter." Someone said.

I looked behind me and saw Nanah.

"You remember don't you? He came with us all the way to Bruhl to find his daughter, but when he didn't found her there he followed us to see if he could find any clues that would lead to her." Nanah said.

"And he found nothing yet hun?"

"Yeah, that's right. Poor Mannar, I feel very sorry for him."

For the days that have passed I had almost forgot the reason why Mannar was still with us, and now that I think about it, I also am feeling sorry for him as well…

**09:15 p.m. Improvised tends.**

I was trying to sleep at my bed but I couldn't help to think about Nazir's situation as well as Mannar's situation. Will Officer Damon approve our request? And I also have to think what we're going to do after we leave the Militia North HQ, after all, we aren't here to stay forever, I'll need to find a new location that it's safe enough for the warpack to rest, and it also has to be a place that it's easy to protect.

After some minutes I decided to walk out and go stargazing, I could not sleep. I remembered that my father always told us that if you want to have a good idea you should always relax first, and the ideas may come to your head in time…

I heard someone steps approaching me, I looked over my right and I saw Zanna, she didn't seem really happy…

"So, brother, what about the situation on the location for the survivors of the Empire's attack?" She asked me.

"Well, Captain Varrot said to me that she was going to try, but there is no guarantee that our request will be accepted." I answered.

"That sounds really bad…" She said while looking at the skies.

"_And the situation just get's worst, after what Faldio said, I am really worried about that Damon guy…"_

We just kept silent for some minutes, looking at the skies. That was a beautiful night with a lot of shooting stars, Zanna looked at me, she knew I was really worried about the whole situation that was happening…

"Brother, don't be worried, you'll do just fine…"

"Zanna…" I looked at her, surprised by knowing how much confidence she had on me.

"I believe in you, brother, as well as father did, he always said that you could do anything, no matter how bad the situation was, you always have found a way out…"

"Mhh... I guess you're right!" I said while looking back at the stars.

We passed a few more minutes looking at the skies, when I finally got up and looked to Zanna…

"C'mon Zanna, we better go sleep, after all, if our request is accepted we'll have a hell of a mission tomorrow." I said while stretching my hand to her.

"Okay!" She answered while smiling back to me and reaching out for my hand.

We went back to the improvised tends and slept through the next morning.

**10:00 a.m. of the next morning, Captain Varrot's room.**

"So captain, how did it go?" I said.

I was really worried about the answer that she was going to give me, but I was also ready if the answer was no, I would do anything to save those survivors.

"I'm sorry Neroh, but your request was denied." She said, although she didn't express it, I could see the sadness on her face.

"What?" I asked.

"In the words of General Damon, he said that _such an information was going to the meaningless act, since the unit that took those survivors must be far away by now. As patriots of Gallia, this warpack should stay near the Militia's North HQ and help us deal with the imperial soldiers that are near us and prevent them from make any more innocent casualties._ I'm sorry, but I can do nothing more…" She said after finishing reading the note that the General wrote.

"**Damm it!"** I shouted, punching the wall right next to me.

As I was walking out of Captain Varrot's room, she said to me:

"Remember Neroh, you're still an independent force that protects Gallia, you may choose to use the warpack to protect this Militia HQ, or you can try to rescue the survivors, the choice is all yours." She said.

"Thanks Captain, I'll make sure to think it right!" I said.

I walked out of the room and moved to the rest of the warpack, just thinking how to say this to them, they will surely be disappointed. I was walking to the improvised "camp" when I saw Nizar and the others talking to Gin…

"Hey, what's going on?" I asked them.

"Neroh! I got some good news for you!" Gin said while letting out a huge smile.

"What news?" I asked him. The way he was smiling was scaring me a little.

"On the way back to the HQ we found some imperial slave hunters with some survivors, we ambushed them and saved the survivors!" He said.

"Oh, really? That's really great!" I answered.

"But I doesn't ends here, we believe that some of them know the location for some other slave hunters, we may found a whole imperial unit with their help!"

"What? Who is the one that said that?" I asked him.

"It was her!" Gin pointed to a young darcsen girl that was right behind him.

She looked really cute, she had short hair and was wearing common cloths, although she seem to be a fragile girl, but her eyes showed otherwise, I could see she has a fighting spirit. She was going to talk to us when Mannar came with a box of medical supplies, when he saw the girl, he immediately drops the box in the floor and the sound of breaking glass can be heard.

"Daddy…?" The girl said.

"Luna? Is really you?" Mannar asked her.

Well, looks like that one problem was solved, now to find the rest of the survivors, with one more soldier serving the warpack, we prepare for another battle against the Empire…


	12. Chapter 11: The black sheep

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 11: The black sheep

Before I could tell the rest of the warpack the bad news, some good news just came to us. Gin told us that he had found a group of survivors from the imperial attacks and he says that someone from that group knows where the location of the Empire slave hunters is, and for our surprise, it was Mannar's daughter, the one that he thought to be in Bruhl some days ago, she was finally here. We gave them some time to talk, since it was a long time that they didn't see each other, and after that we prepared to go.

"Are you guys feeling better now?" I asked them.

"It's okay, thank you Neroh." Mannar said to me.

"So, maybe we should know more about the location of the imperial slave hunters." Nazir said.

"Yes, I'll help in any way I can." Luna said to us.

We than marched our way out of the Militia HQ following her directions, she said that they were using some kind of cave system that was not known by the gallian military. We crossed a lot of dense forests and passed through a lot of mountainous terrain, despite all the difficulties, the tanks that were many times blocked by the huge rocks that appeared in our way were able to pass all of it.

While we were on our way to find the imperial salve hunters, we had a little chat in the truck with Luna, to know how she was taken by the imperials, after all, everyone thought that she was at Bruhl.

"I'm sorry if I made you worry dad, I was at Bruhl working with the Militia units, helping with the medical supplies when I heard rumors about Darcsen survivors hiding in the forests in need of medical help. I asked the Militia for help and some soldiers came with me, but when we got to the destination said by the rumors we were ambushed by imperial troops, only a few of us survived and we were taken by the imperials, since than they just kept moving us from one point to another, to keep us hidden from the Militia, I think. Sometimes they took us to these strange caves that had many entrances, that how they usually evade the Militia patrols and get us to another places, but sometimes they waited there for days to rest, that's why I think that most of the survivors might be there." She said.

"Well now, that explains a lot." I said.

As we continued the conversation we got close to a mountain "hidden" in the middle of a dense, closed pine forest with the trees almost reaching the skies, now I know why the gallian military didn't knew about this cave system, it was so well hidden from everyone, it makes me think how did the Empire found it in the first place. I send some troops with Nazir in command to see the situation, after a couple of hours they got back…

"What did you saw?" I asked Nazir.

"The place is crowded with imperial slave hunters, it was difficult to get a good look at the place, but we did it after some hours, at the total there are nine entrances, three at the north, two at the northwest, one at the east, two at the south and two at the west." Nazir said.

Now that's gonna be a lot of trouble for us, we can't cover all the entrances, we don't have enough soldiers for that.

"And also, we just saw an imperial squad coming from the north with more survivors, all darcsens." Nazir said.

"How many were they?" I asked.

"At least thirty."

And now the situation just got worse, we can't just save all the survivors with such a small time.

"Brother, what we're gonna do now?" Zanna asked me.

"I don't know, just give me some time and I'll come up with something." I said.

I walked some meters away from the warpack to come up with something, but it was really difficult, even if we try to ambush them with some soldiers hiding in the woods nearby the other entrances they would be quickly surrounded and annihilated by them, since they are in greater numbers, and we also can't get support from our tanks, the forest is so dense that they had to wait for us outside. I'm in a real trouble now.

As I was trying to think of a way to rescue the survivors I looked above and saw an owl, it wasn't really paying attention to me, it was looking to the other side of the forest, really far away. I did saw some movement, I prepared myself with my rifle, I loaded him and prepared myself, using an old log as support for my aim.

For my surprise it was just a little mouse that was looking for food, I looked up again and saw the owl preparing to fly, she took off and in the blink of an eye the owl grabbed then little mouse with its claws and flew right back to the branch of the tree, that gave me an idea on how to deal with our problem.

I came running back to the rest of the warpack, they were a little scared by the way that I was shouting "I got it!" so enthusiastic.

"What is it boy? Take a minute to breathe first." Mannar said.

"I know exactly what to do now!" I said it.

"Here is the plan, we won't be able to cover all the entrances to the cave because we don't have enough soldiers to do it, so, we're gonna try to direct them in an only direction were some of our units will be hidden to ambush them in the forest."

"But, didn't you though that they might be slaughtered? We don't have such a military force to deal with all of them, and we don't have the artillery support from our tanks." Nazir said.

"Well, that's why we won't be hidden on the ground…" I said.

Everyone is finding this a little complicated to understand.

"We will be hiding in the top of the trees!" I said, while pointing with my finger up.

"Well, that is a good plan, but still, even if the trees are high here, it doesn't guarantee that our troops will be safe, they still might be a easy target to hit…" Nazir said.

"Well, that's really a problem…" I said to him.

After all, I didn't thought of that, now I just made everyone get their hopes up for nothing…

"Hum… excuse me, you guys…" Nanah took a step forward.

"What is it Nanah?" I asked her.

"Well brother, me and Nanah had something done just for such an occasion!" Zanna said.

They showed us a wooden box that it was in the truck.

"What's this?" Zig asked.

"It's some camo jackets that we made for a time like this!" Zanna said.

"Well, now this might work, thanks you two!" I said.

Zanna replied with a smile while Nanah was a little blushed, I guess she's still a little embarrassed about that one night.

Now we had a plan, time to put it into action, I ordered that Nazir and Zig would stand at the trees around the entrances to the north while the rest of the warpack would be divided equally between the others entrances so that we could direct them to the north entrances. I wasn't really worried about the others that were hidden in the woods because they are using the camo jackets. Now there is no time to lose, we ran to our positions and waited for my signal. One of the things that I noticed about this cave system is that when we got close to the entrances there were no imperial guards around, they were so confident that the gallian forces were not going to find this place that they didn't even care to secure the perimeter. Well, now they'll pay for their lack of security.

I used a red flare to alert the other soldiers of the warpack to start the operation, we quickly charged to the cave system and open our way through unprepared squads of the imperial forces, it was not really of a great difficult to pass through them. As I thought, they tried to escape by the only entrances that were available, the north ones, and they also took the survivors with them.

For their surprise they received a welcome storm of bullets from our soldiers that were hidden on the walls, they got confused as they didn't knew what was happening, since the fire was coming from the up part of the trees and they were camouflaged, it was easy to take them out. After some seconds taking heavy fire from our troops the rest of them finally surrendered, we came closer to arrest them but the ambush unit remained hidden, in the case that they might pull the fast one on us. We escorted the survivors back to the Militia HQ together with the imperial prisoners, although they surrendered you could tell by looking at their eyes that they don't regret nothing that they did, almost as if they had no soul, deprived of their feelings, more like demons than human beings. When we came back to the Militia HQ, Nazir finally had found his friend Zaki among the survivors, it was hard to believe that the imperials were holding so many survivors in a such small cave system.

"Hey Nazir, long time no see hun?" Zaki said.

"Yeah, long time no see my friend!" Nazir replied.

They are both shaking hands when Lenna comes running in their direction and hugs Zaki, crying of happiness knowing that now he's okay.

But Nazir wasn't the only one that had a friend being held prisoner by the imperials, the whole warpack had being reunited with friends and families that were with the survivors that day. As the sun goes down and friends tell tales and share laughts on thing still bugs me, the way that the whole operation had gone was easy, to easy actually, this might mean that the Empire could had planned that as a trap, still, nothing happened at the time, what was their plan? While I was thinking to myself I was surprised. One of the buildings that were being used to deposit ammo had exploded and the whole HQ had gone crazy trying to put the fire out.

That's when I realized, we let an enemy in, and we didn't even knew…


	13. Chapter 12: Dark secrets

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 12: Dark secrets

We just got back from what we thought to be a successful operation to recue survivors from imperial attacks, and as a bonus, we also took some imperials as prisoners with us back to the Militia HQ, what we didn't knew is that all of the things that had happened was according to their plan. As soon as we got back the survivors spread inside the HQ, we thought that it would be okay since they were trying to look for friends and family members, but letting them to go free around the Militia HQ was the biggest mistake I could ever had made.

Some minutes after we had arrived, one of the pavilions of the Militia had exploded, all the squads presented in the HQ prepared themselves for what was happening, but the first thing that we did was help the Militia squads to put the fire out, otherwise it could spread to the other five pavilions that were right by its side.

***BOOM* *BOOM***

Another explosion was heard, I ran to the direction with fifteen soldiers of the warpack, following the screams and the gun shots, they were coming from the garages where the tanks were parked. In one side there was the Seventh squad of the Militia and in the other, planting bomb in the tanks and firing back at the Seventh squad were a group of darcsen youngsters.

"What the hell? What are they doing?" I said.

Nobody was understanding the situation, what would they even do that? While I was stunned by what I saw, Nazir poked me in the arm.

"I know that this is strange, but still, we can't just stay here with our arms crossed, we have to do something Neroh!" Nazir said.

"I now… You're right, quick! Let's give Squad Seven some supporting fire!" I said.

While Nanah, Mannar and Luna got half of the troops to help Squad Seven I joined up with Nazir, Zanna and Zig to try a flanking maneuver, maybe we can still save the other tanks before they blown them up, and so we did.

We quietly approached them by the side while they were too busy with Squad Seven and Mannar and the others.

"Hands up!" I shouted as I aimed at them.

They were surrounded and had no escape, the only way to get out of this one was to surrender… At least, that's what I thought. They slowly moved their hands up, but at one point they putted on their back and pulled a small knife they have hidden and before I could stop them they had cut their own throats, by luck, Nazir shot the one that was planting the bombs in the arm, before he could cut himself.

Even though the situation was under control now, they way that it had come the way it is now, it's almost unbelievable. Zanna couldn't hold herself much more time, she turned her head to the side away from us and vomited, she started crying, we were in the middle of something that was really much more than simple infiltrators. Now, in front of me lies six dead bodies of young darcsen boys, they were probably fifteen, even sixteen years old, I was in a state of shock, It shouldn't seem so bad for me, I mean, I've killed people even before I created the warpack, to defend myself and Zanna, but to see this kids to cut their own throats and at the same time show no reaction or emotion in their faces, it was such a devastating sensation…

Two hours later, I talked about the situation with Cap. Varrot, she decided that we should interrogate some of the survivors just to be sure that we might not have another problem like this one. I walked out of her office and saw Zanna in the corridor, she was with her back against the wall and in fetal position, she maintained her face down, covering her head with her arms, trying to cover her tears. She always tried to show that she's strong, part of that behavior might be my fault, since I'm always making funny of sometimes she behaves like a child. I still remember that day…

**One year before, Zanna and I were walking on a dirt road to get back home…**

"_**Hey Zanna, don't you think that it's too heavy for you to carry? Let me help you, here, give me some bags."**_

"_**No brother! I can do it, I'm grown now, you know?"**_

**While she's saying this she didn't noticed the small pebbles in her way and she tripped.**

"_**Zanna! Are you okay?"**_

"_**I-I'm fine, see- HUGH!" She tries to get up but she couldn't, it looks like that she had twisted her ankle.**_

"_**Here, give me your arm, I'll help you!"**_

"_**No! I'm fine!"**_

"_**Stop being so stubborn!"**_

_**Neroh helped her by putting her arm over his shoulder, even though she was still making a made face.**_

"_**Oh, c'mon now, I couldn't just leave you there, after all you're my little sister."**_

_**She turns her face away from him, trying to hide her mad expression.**_

"_**And no matter how old you'll may get, you can still count on me for anything that you need, okay!" He said, letting out a little smile.**_

"_**Neroh… Thanks!" She replied while smiling.**_

I couldn't just walk away, after all, she's my little sister, I think that the interrogation can wait a little loner…

"Zanna, are you okay?" I asked while I was sitting by her side.

She just gently nodded her head one side to another, she was looking really depressed, even thought she had seen death in the battle field before suicidal acts were a whole new, scary concept to her, it just didn't make sense, why would someone throw their lives away like this without a reason? She knew that they must have being scared by us, but still, that was no motive to waste their lives like that…

"Zanna, you know that I'm your big brother right? If you need my support, you can count on me-!" I was interrupted as she suddenly hugs me, still she doesn't show her face to me, but still I stood there with her…

After some minutes she felt better, I could by the look of her face that she was lying to me, I just said to her to rest a little, she went to her tent with no verbal answer, she just nodded with her head again. Before I could proceed with the interrogation I needed to change my clothes, Zanna left my shirt covered in tears, so a grabbed a spare one and used one of the shower rooms of the Militia.

Second later I went outside and I saw Nazir coming in my direction…

"So, how is the situation?" I asked him.

"Nothing good, we're trying to calm down the survivors."

"What do you mean?"

"They think that the boys were murdered, and now they are almost getting out of control."

When a problem is solved a bigger one appears, now I'll have to try and calm down these people before they go rioting. I walked through the angry mob and climbed on a weapons box that was near me.

"**People! Please, calm down! The people that were found by the Militia were trying to sabotage their tanks, we tried to make them surrender, but they killed themselves, we could not save them!"**I said to them, trying to calm them down.

"**Liar! The Bastards from the Militia murdered them, only because they were darcsens!"**

"**We knew them well! And they would never do something like that!"**

My attempt to calm them had failed, and now they throw stones at us and the other members of the warpack. A man appeared in front of me with his arms opened, It was Zaki, he was trying to calm them down as well.

"**People, listen up! This might looks like a hate crime but it is not, I know that what had happened is through, this warpack saved us, do you really think they'll just handle us to anyone just to be murdered?"**

The mob seems to have calmed down, it looks like that they believe in him, he must have some influence upon them for some reason. Later on the angry mob was disbanded and they all got back to what they were doing before, except that now they are always being watched by troops both from the Militia and the warpack.

"Thanks Zaki, if it wasn't for you we would be in a real trouble." I said to him.

"Well, that was nothing." He answered scratching the back of his head and a little embarrassed.

"Well, looks like that you really got their confidence, hun?" Nazir appeared from my left side, saying that to Zaki.

"Well, we sure got through a lot of stuff after the day we got captured. By the way, how you're doing while I wasn't around Lenna?" He asked

"I'm okay, Nazir and his friends took care of me!" She answered.

"That's a good girl!" He patted her on her head.

"But still, I have the feeling that you know something Zaki." Nazir said.

For a moment Zaki got all serious and quietly.

"If we are going to talk about this it's better to be in a more reserved place." He said.

We than entered into one of the interrogation rooms of the Militas's HQ…

"So, what is happening here Zaki?" Nazir asked him while grabbing a chair to sit.

"Hell itself, I would say…" Zaki spaced out for some seconds.

"What exactly happened to make those boys kill themselves?" I asked him.

He looked into the ceiling and took a long and deep breath.

"When we were captured by the Empire we thought that we would be immediately transported to one of their strongholds across the border, and from there we would serve as slave labor to gather ragnite from their mines." Zaki paused for a second.

"And then?" Nazir asked.

"We we realized that after a long time being dragged around by them they weren't taking us anywhere, in fact, that's pretty much the only thing that they did to us, the only location where they stopped to rest was that damn cave system. Every time that we stopped there they took some darcsen man to a dark room that was next to our jails, the only thing I can remember about that room was a heavy metal door with four different locks, and after brought a darcsen inside, you could still hear their screams of pain and agony. Every single day that passed in that cave system was the most terrifying days of everyone's lives." Zaki now looks dark and gloomy.

"So…they were tortured or something like that?" I asked him.

"Hun! I wished. It was much more worst than anything that I could imagine, because one day I tried to escape, I opened the door to my cage and tried to flee to get help from the Militia, but when I got out from one of the entrances, I saw it…" He kept himself quiet.

"Saw what Zaki?" Nazir asked.

"One of the slave hunters was beating on a darcsen girl… When he was finished he called a darcsen man, and he ordered him to kill her. The man showed no emotion on his face while he was pulling his knife…" Zaki seemed uncomfortable by the interrogation.

"Then what Zaki?" I asked him.

He stood quietly, I approached him…

"Zaki, we need to know what happened, everyone is confused by what happened and we need some answers."I said.

He then nodded his head in affirmation and continued with the story.

"He stabbed her over and over, she tried to shout for help, but… but he had hit her throat and she started to gasp for air, she was drowning on her on blood…"

Now I could see that tears slowly rolled down his face, he tried to cover his face to clean it.

"Damn it! He stabbed her until she couldn't move or make any sound anymore, what was once that girl now is just a pool of blood and a distorted body, I just couldn't believe my eyes, I didn't **WANT **to believe… and… after that, the imperial ordered him to 'finish the job'. He slashed his own throat and died short after. I didn't hold myself and vomited, that's how I got captured again, I have brought their attention to me." He said, after finally calming down.

"And what happened to you?" Nazir asked.

"They dragged me inside the dark room…"

"I thought you said that the only thing that you knew about that room was the heavy metal door." I said to him.

"I didn't saw how it was inside, I was blindfolded, when they let me I heard a woman's voice that said 'now that you saw everything, we can't let you go unpunished.', after that I was tortured."

"Tortured how?" Nazir asked.

"They made me sit on a block of ice with no cloths for hours, and burned me many times" He showed us marks that he had on his neck, it looks like they used a metal to brand him with an "X".

"But after that they started to inject drugs in me, it made me feel weak, like I was almost giving up… That's when you guys appeared there, and they let me out so that they could escape with us…"

Nazir and I looked to each other.

"Don't tell me that they…" I said

"The bastards are brainwashing them!" Nazir said.


	14. Chapter 13: A fat pig in the army

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 13: A fat pig in the army

We were kind of shocked after knowing the plan of the Empire, they were now using our people against our own country, making them fight against us by brainwashing them. By what Zaki told us there could be more of them with the rest of the survivors, Mannar and Luna helped the Militia medical troops by checking everyone, if they were brainwashed they would see it by looking at their dilated pupils, because the Empire are using drugs to brainwash them. Although the situation looks pretty awful to our side there was a way out, Zaki told us that after some time going everywhere while he was a prisoner they always stopped by a facility that is hidden underground, here, in gallian soil. He said that he had never entered, but by the talk of the guards that were always near them, it seemed to be a really huge facility, he said that that place was where they got all the drugs for the brainwashing process…

"So, if we can destroy this facility, we can stop this madness, right?" I asked him.

"Yeah, but it's not gonna be an easy task, the place itself is guarded by heavy Imperial squads, and they probably already have some brainwashed darcsens with them as well. If this moment come, will you be able to kill the people who the race is the same as your own?" Zaki said.

That question had hit me really heard, deep in my heart I knew that I couldn't try and save them all, I don't really know if I could pull the trigger against one of my own, that is being used by the enemy as a tool. I kept quiet for a while, thinking about his question.

"Well, if the time comes and there's not gonna be any other choice, then I'll have to…" I said.

Me, Nazir and Zaki kept quiet in the room for some minutes.

"Maybe there is another way out, Zaki, do you remember any other type of drug that was in that cave system?" Nazir asked.

"Hmm… Now that you've asked, there was some kind of darts in one of the research rooms. And they were using some kind of blue liquid in them, they didn't look like tranquillizers to me…" He said.

"Well, maybe that's gonna take us somewhere…" I said, looking to Nazir.

"I have already asked for the Militia to secure the base and bring here anything that they have founded there. Drugs, researches, enemy plans, they'll probably be here soon…" I said to Zaki.

"Well, I'm praying that you may find an answer for all this mass." He said while looking to the side, supporting his chin on his arm.

After that was over a Militia soldier came running in the room, he said that the darcsen boy that had survived the assault was now waking up. The strange thing is that he said that the boy doesn't remember anything that had happened.

We followed him into the hospital wing, when he opened the door, there he was, the boy was sitting on the bed with one of the most confused expressions that I have ever seen in his face, he also seemed restless, always asking for his friends and how he got in here…

"Boy, calm down, my name is Neroh, I'm the leader of the warpack that recued you, if you calm down I'll tell you what happened." I said.

He finally had calmed down, although it seemed pointless to do that since the next thing I was about to say to him certainly would make him to freak out. After I explained to him what happened he just kept his eyes looking to a fixed point in the room, he slowly lifted his shaky hands to his head, his eyes completely opened and the terror in his face was clear to anyone that could see him.

"No… You're lying, you're lying! There is no way that they, that I could have done something like that!" He shouted.

He started to get out of control. We had no other option, the Militia medics sedated him, otherwise he could had hurt himself in that room.

"Now what we do…?" I said.

"Well… There is nothing left to do rather than wait for the Militia troops to come back and hope that they had found something that might help us…"Nazir said.

And so that was the way it goes…

**01:47 P.m. Militia H.Q. Courtyard.**

I was helping Zanna and Zig with the repairs on the warpack's tank when we heard a commotion in the hospital wing, we ran to there as fast as we could, when we got there we saw this fat man wearing uniforms of Gallia's Army.

"Who is that?" I asked.

"That my friend, is the horrible and feared Cap. George von Damon." Someone said.

I turned around and saw that the one who was talking was Faldio.

"He is Cap. Damon?" Nazir asked him, with a doubt expression in his eyes.

"Yep! The one and only, the most hated person in all Gallia, or maybe in the whole continent."

"And what does he want here?" Zig asked.

"I don't know, but it could be about that darcsen boy that survived the assault this morning." Faldio said.

Everyone got shocked for a moment, we were afraid that he had come to arrest him or anything worst.

"Mr. Neroh! Please, hurry!" One of the nurses of the hospital wing was shouting in the other side of the corridor.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Cap. Damon, he's… He's going to condemn the boy of treason!" She said.

Now, a huge problem appeared to us, we all knew pretty much that people who are condemned of treason has a way out after the trial, and the most likely sentence for treason is… Death!

"Oh no he won't!" I said.

Me, Nazir, Zanna and Zig got our way to his room, there we found Cap. Damon already trying to escort him out, being dragged by the arms by two M.P. officers.

"Well now, you shall be judged by treason, I hope to see you in the court soon…" Damon said, while he turned around.

"But I already said to you that I don't remember anything! I don't even know what you're talking about!" The boy said.

At this moment Damon turned quickly while he hits the boy in the face with a slap from his left hand, everyone in the room got quiet, and we were just angry by the acts of this fat military pig…

"You should be thankful! You darcsen dog, I at least am giving you a chance in trial, more than that, you should be kissing my feet! Show some gratitude you darcsen scum!" Damon shouted at the boy.

"But i-" The boy tried to defend himself with another reply.

"You little!" Damon sad while raising his right hand to give him another slap to the face.

I couldn't just stand there and see this, the boy just got sedated, he can barely stand on his own and this pig is humiliating him, I came from behind him and hold his right hand by his wrist.

"What did you just said?" I asked him.

He looked at me like he was the devil itself.

"Who the heck are you! Let go of me you bastard! Guards!" Damon said.

Before the guards could pull their pistols I gave the order.

"Nazir! Zig! Zanna!" I said.

At that exact moment they pulled their weapons and aimed at the guards.

"If you don't want to die, than please, put your weapons on the ground and kick them here!" Nazir said, looking at them with those assassin eyes, it even makes their own souls shake in fear.

They quickly drop their weapons at the floor and did as they were told to do.

"Do you know who I am darcsen? You're going to pay for this, you're going to spend a whole month in the Militia solitary!" He said.

"Well, there is only one little problem with that plan of yours Cap. Damon, we aren't part of the Militia." I said.

"What!" Damon asked surprised.

After he said that Cap. Varrot entered the room.

"Oh my, what is happening here?" She asked.

"This man had the audacity to stop me, arrest him at once!" Damon demanded from her, pointing at me.

"Hey, did your mother never told you not to point and people?" I asked him.

"How there you!" Damon said

"Well, sorry sir, but we can't do nothing against him sir." Cap. Varrot said, while she adjusted her glasses.

"What?" He asked looking at her

"Sir, this is Nerho, he is the leader of a warpack that had helped the Militia a lot since the beginning of this war." She said.

"So what? Arrest him at once!" Damon shouted.

"Hey! Stop shouting, this is a hospital wing!" I said.

Damon started to get more and more nervous…

"Sir, have you forgot? As long as a warpack is helping Gallia to defend against the Empire forces they can be independent, the long time that they had helped the Militia here was their choice only sir, we can do nothing against them."

Damon started to clench his teeth while his expression started to get worst and worst, after some seconds we saw that all he wanted to do is kill us all.

He then let it out a "tsc", showing his dissatisfaction by not achieving his goal here, he bypass me while calling his guards to fallow him, before he could cross the door I said:

"Hey, you there, I don't like your attitude!"

He turned with a demonical smile on his face and said back to me:

"And what are you going to do about it?"

"This time, nothing… You know that the warpack can create their own rules that must be respected by any person, no matter if it is a civilian or military?" I said.

"If accepted by the local military forces, yes, why?" Damon said, still with that smile in his face…

"Well, one of our rules is, 'Never hurt a fellow soldier or civilian, no matter which race this person is…"

"So what?"

"I'm saying sir that if you dare to raise your hand against a defenseless civilian again you better be ready to pay for your actions!" I said.

I finally took out that smile from his face, we better be careful while next to this guy, because his a time bomb ready to explode! He walked away.

"Well, I guess that will make him think twice before doing anything to prejudice a darcsen person again." I said.

"Hey Neroh, thanks! If it wasn't for you I would have probably be in a really bad situation."

"No problem, this guy has a tendency to help people a lot, trust me." Nazir said to him.

"Oh, I'm sorry for the trouble we've caused Cap. Varrot." I said

"No problem Mr. Neroh, to be honest, I wanted to do that a long time ago, at least he knows that he's arrogant ways can't get him everything that he wants…" She answered.

I looked over to the boy that was still in his bed.

"Hey boy! Are you okay?" I asked him.

"I'm fine, they didn't really hurt me that bad." He said.

"Hey, what about joining our warpack hun? Maybe you could help us understand what happened to you and your friends." I said.

"So… I really did those things that they said hun?" He asked.

"Yeah, sorry about your friends kid…" I said to him.

We gave him some minutes of silence for the lost of his friends, he got in fetal position and started to cry quietly. Later I entered the room and repeated the same question that I have asked him before.

"Well, I do want to know what happened to us, and also, I want to prevent this from happening to other darcsens as well. I think that that's what my friends would want…" He said.

"Okay then! What's your name?"

"My name is Lokky! Hmm… could I ask you something?" He said.

I nodded my head in confirmation

"What is the name of the warpack?"

Now he got me, although we formed this warpack for so much time and the documents are all in order now, we didn't decided.

"That's true Brother! What's the name of our warpack?" Zanna said.

"Well…" I kept thinking.

"Seriously, I can't believe that we haven't come up with a name after so much time…" Nazir said, while showing his face of deception.

"Yeah, I guess that's a bad point about the warpack." Zig said.

"A ha! I know!"

"Then tell us brother, what's the name?" Zanna asked.

"Yeah! Don't keep us wating, c'mon!" Zig said.

"Okay, okay… What about… **The Darcsen Brotherhood**?"


	15. Chapter 14: Bug hunting

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 14: Bug hunting

"The darcsen brotherhood?" Zanna asked.

"Wohoo! The name is great!" Zig said, jumping up and down with a smile that goes from one year to the other.

"Well… That wasn't that good, I just fought of it now…" I said.

"Seems like a good name to me!" Lokky said, letting out a small smile.

"And to me as well."

I turned around and saw Nazir at the door.

"So, do you have any news about the Militia scouts at the cave system?" I asked him.

"Yes, that's what I was going to talk to you about. They've found some research material and a lot of other stuff. I said to them to send to their laboratory, they said that they'll have the results in some hours."

"Great! Mabe we'll know how to deal with this problem."

We waited some hours for the results from the Militia's laboratory to know what they had founded out, the one that had brought the results was Commanding Officer Welkin Gunther, accompanying him was Alicia Melchiott…

"Hey there Neroh!" Welkin said to me while he walked at my direction with his hand up in the air as a sign of greeting, while he had a small smile at his face.

"Hey there Comman-" Welkin interrupted me.

"Please, there is no need to formalities like this, here at this H.Q. we are all companions and we should all be treated the same way." He said to me.

I scratched the back of my head while letting out a small embarrassed laugh.

"Well, here are the results for the samples that were found at the cave system." He handled them over to me.

The file contained a lot of names of herbs and fungus found here in Gallia, it also contained the correct procedures to know how to brainwash innocent gallian patriots, this is what the file said…

_**Project corpse soldier file #01:**_

**Project under command of Doctor Clementia Forster**

**Main object – Create the perfect slave soldier that will be tolerant against pain and will not disobey any orders given to him.**

**Subject #01 – Despite the fact my research showed that the quantity of herbs and fungus were going to be ideal to sedate the subject and to put him in a trance state that would prepare him for the beginning of the process, after we started to electrocute him he started to twitch over the floor and to produce non-human sounds, I believe that the pain must have being so much that he starts to demonstrate it by making sounds that are equal to animals. After some minutes the subject was dead and soon discarded.**

**Subject #02 – We remade some calculations and tried another dose of the mix of herbs and fungus, to our deception this subject had failed again, when we injected the mix in him he started to get hotter and hotter, in the and the subject died of a high fever caused by the mix, he was discarded.**

**Subject #03 – This time we did it new calculations for the mix, we had high hopes this time, we injected the subject with the mix with the new calculations, but this time he instantly turned into a vegetable. He was discarded.**

I kept reading those inhuman annotations while tears slowly rolled down my face, my feelings were all mixed up, anger and sadness are clashing in my heart right now, my anger is so big that I was almost tearing this documents apart. But after a lot of innocents murdered I had found something.

**Subject #26 – After a lot of failures we have made our minds and focused that maybe the problem wasn't with the portions and different herbs and fungus. We started a new research on Gallia's fauna and flora and we found out about a peculiar small red beetle called "Gallian Red Hallucinogen Beetle". This beetle is poisonous, it affects the individual that is bitten by it is suggested to suffer of a light headache, pain in the joints and after all these symptoms the individual is affected by having hallucinations. We soon found out that the poison of this beetle can be used as a painkiller in large quantities and after it's boiled. By accident one of my assistants dropped a percentage of the boiled poison in one of the samples at the laboratory, that it was sent to be injected on subject #26, surprisingly it worked, after the subject passed the electrification process he was mentally dead and received every order without a single protest. Although the subject seemed to be a success at the beginning he's organs started to fail and he soon died, the subject was discarded, but at least we founded something that can stabilize the mix, now, we just need to find the right proportion.**

**Subject #27 – This time, the subject is currently walking well, and appears to be resistant against bullets, he had survived three days without food and water, but it still too far away from our objectives. The subject was discarded.**

**Subject #28 – This subject lasted longer, but, he was too weak after five days without water and food, for our project to be successful we need the subject to be in perfect conditions even after a month without food or water. The subject was discarded.**

**Subject #29 – After a few more calculations we have found the perfect balanced mix between the herbs, fungus and the beetle poison. The subject now have lived for more than three weeks, although his body present signs of dehydration and malnutrition the process made the subject believe, in his mind, that he can survive through anything, he can lift up appropriate weight when ordered to and has no reaction when shoot in his stomach five times in a row. There he was, the perfect slave soldier, he does not disobey, he is tough, he feels no pain neither fear, and would die for you as you order him too. The subject passed the test and it's already receiving training of a proper soldier, soon he's going to be an formidable soldier and an incredible assassin.**

**With this my research is done, the project was a success after all, but I still wish that those stupid army dogs stopped killing my creations, we don't have as much slaves as they think we do, they'll have to stop playing around with them or else, I'll have to prepare the proper "punishment" to their actions.**

After reading that, it was clear as the day light to me that the key ingredient for all of the brainwashing process to work was that beetle poison.

"Hmm… I think that if I could get some of that beetle poison Mannar and Luna could help me to find a cure…" I said.

"That's a good idea, Welkin can help you with that, he's great when it comes to bug hunting, it's the same as a hobby to him." Alicia said.

Welkin stood there just scratching the back of his head while making a awkward face.

"Really? Well, that's actually pretty helpful, what do you say Welkin?" I asked him.

"Well, I see no problem at all." He said.

Although everything was decide a "commotion" started at the Militia's courtyard. Welkin, Alicia and Myself ran to see what was going on, when we got there we saw a crowd around what was supposed to be a fight I guessed. We passed through the crowd and when we got close to the center of all that confusion we saw Isara and Zanna in one side and a woman with a hair of red color in the other, I believe that she was one of Welkin's soldiers. Both warpack and Squad 7 are almost getting in a serious fight.

Welkin and I stepped in and stopped the whole thing, soon the crowd was disbanded and everything went to back to normal again. I walked towards to Zanna and Isara to know what happened.

"Thanks brother, if you wouldn't have interfered I don't know what would have happened." Zanna said.

"That's okay, now, tell me what happened." I said.

"That woman was getting in a fight with Isara, and I couldn't stand to just keep watching so I walked in and…"

"And you got yourself into all this trouble hun?" I said, interrupting her.

She looked down a little bit, I think she felt that I was disappointed with her.

"Umm… I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get you any trouble…" Isara said to me, trying to defend Zanna.

"Don't worry, but what was that all about?" I asked her.

"There has been some… problems after I joined the Militia with my brother…"

"Oh, I see…"

"But don't mind, it's nothing really a big deal."

"Well, if happens again you can always count on me to help you Isara!" Zanna said.

"B- but I don't want to bother you…"

"No problem, you are my friend, and I'll always protect my friends!"

Isara's eyes showed some strange shine for some seconds, followed a friendly smile.

"Thanks!" She said.

Afterwards Welkin came running back to see how she was. After that we went on the bug hunting, trying to find that beetle, in the middle of a forest that was near the Militia H.Q. Welin said that this was one of the best places to look for them, as we are searching for it we started a small conversation…

"So, do you know what exactly happened back then?" I asked him.

"Well, I'm still having some trouble with one of Squad 7's soldiers, her name is Rosie, she's not really a kind person when it comes to darcsens…" He said.

"Wait, you mean Rosie the singer?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?"

"Well, I heard about her back in my village, I heard she is a talented singer."

I really never knew about how famous she was, but people just kept saying that her singing was amazing, and the news about her spread through all Gallia only after some weeks, apparently she was only a simple bar singer before the war, but she might get more than that after the war is over.

"But I guess that's pretty normal, other people have hated our kind since I can remember, it feels like we are already used to it." I said.

"I see… But still, do you want to be like this forever?" He asked me.

"Now, now Welkin, don't get me wrong, I am not easily offended by some swearing and bad looks that people throw at me, but believe me, if a fellow darcsen brother or sister is suffering, I **will **stand and fight for them."

"Well, I guess you're right, let's just hope that people change their minds soon right?"

"Yeah, let's hope…"

After that talk we soon found the beetle, we were on our way to the Militia H.Q. when we heard someone moaning in pain, we searched for the sound that was getting really repetitive and louder, we walked around and we found a wounded Imperial soldier, he was with his back against a big tree in the forest, trying to get a bullet out of his arm with his bare hand.

"Hey! Are you okay?" I shouted to him.

When he saw us he immediately pulled a knife out of his waist and aimed at us.

"Get away! Stand back!" He kept shouting at us.

"Don't worry, we won't hurt you." I said to him while lifting my hands up to the air, to show him that I wasn't armed.

"Welkin, do you have a first aid kit?"

"Yes, take it." Welkin said

He pulled the first aid kid of his bag and handled to me.

"I said to get away!" The soldier shouted, waving the knife around, with the intention to scare us.

Now that I was closer to him, I could see that this wasn't really the "soldier" we thought he was, he was probably twelve years old and by the way that he was struggling to hold his knife I could tell that he was really tired and weak, he literally was trying to use all his strength left just to hold that knife up, his hands shaking non-stopping and his eyes almost closing tell me that he was almost in the verge of death. He was in a cold sweat and his face was really pale, I approached him and gave him a little slap on his hand so that he would let go of the knife, it was nothing hard as he barely could hold it.

"Stop being so childish, we're not enemies right now, we're only human beings." I said to him.

He gave up on trying to stop us, he simply let go of the strength that he put on his arm and let them go to the ground, he turned his head over and closed his eyes, seemed to be really tired, Welkin helped by giving him some water to drink and by making him to stay awake, he was starting to pant, it was clear to us that he was really tired, but we weren't going to risk and let him die, he needed to stay awake.

"Okay now, I'm going to take out the bullet, be prepared." I said it.

I started to slowly pull the bullet out with a medical instrument but every time I move the bullet to get it out the boy starts to scream in pain, I had to ask for Welkin to hold him in place so that I could remove the bullet properly. We finally did it, when he calmed down we passed some alcohol at the bullet hole and closed up, I'm not really good with this kind of stuff, but the improvised bandage that I made should last long enough.

"Now what should we do?" Welkin asked me.

"Well, I guess we should turn him to the Militia, they'll have a better treatment for him there, and since he's young maybe he's sentence is going to be smaller…"

Before I could finished talking the boy quickly got up, supporting his body by the tree that he was found.

"Forget it! I'm not going to be arrested!" He angrily shouted at us.

We stood quite for some times while the boy's angry expression turned to a calm and worried one while he slowly turned his eyes to the ground…

"I… I have my family waiting for me back at the Empire… You know, the place that I was born from was not a good one, when I was born my father left us, it was just me, my mom and my two little sisters. I remember that sometimes it was so hard to live that I had to steal from others, and it was not much since the region itself was poor from the beginning. When the war started soldiers from the Empire came to our region to recruit soldiers, I knew that the payment of the army was big, that way I thought that I could help my family no matter the cost. When I came here, my squad was design to capture small town that is close to the Militia H.Q. but our commander underestimated the locals and we were defeated, to save ourselves we ran away from the battle, that's how I ended up here. My family it's still waiting for me to return, I'm the only man of the house, that's why… that's why I'm not going arrested, I promised that I would go back and that's what I'm going to do!" The boy said, he looked me in the eyes and I could see his determination.

"Okay than, this is what we're going to do." I said, checking my backpack to see if I could find a spare of clothes.

"Here, change take off that uniform and wear this." I handled him the clothes.

After some minutes he had changed to the clothes.

"Okay now, what we are going to do is this, we're going to take you to the Militia H.Q. and tell them that you are a survivor of an Imperial attack to your village, you'll be taken care until you can walk by yourself again, and then, you'll cross the border back to the Empire and back to your family, you got it?" I asked him.

He just nodded his head up and down.

"Oh! And use this to help you on the way." I gave him a small sack with some money inside.

Welkin and I helped the boy by supporting him up by the shoulders to carry him, while we were carrying him back to the Militia H.Q. he asked me:

"Why did you help me? Do you know what my people made to your people?"

"Well, it's not really a matter of people here, but more of common sense, you see, when we are fighting we are soldiers, killing machines or whatever do you think it's best to be called, but when we are not fighting we transform back to what we were before we started fighting, and my normal me would not deny to help a kid in need. Just remember that before we are assassins, we are human beings…" I said.

That pretty much shut him up and he didn't say one single word throughout the whole way back to the Militia H.Q.

Back to the Militia H.Q. we took him to the hospital wing where he was going to be treated until he was good again. I walked to the corridor were I stopped at a window and I kept looking outside, at this moment Welkin joined me and asked me:

"So, what do you think of that boy?"

"Well, I think he'll be fine…"

"Well, I know that, what I meant was, do you think he'll really go back to his home, or he'll just go back to a Imperial outpost and continuing fighting hun?"

"That's up to him, but I guess that almost death experience may have changed his mind a bit, after all, the boy said that he's family needs him…"

"I guess you're right… Oh! By the way, here are the beetles that you needed." Welkin said while he handles me a glass bottle that has about four beetles inside.

"Thanks, I'll give it to Mannar, maybe he'll find a way to extract the poison."

"Well, see you later." Welkin said while going back to his squad.

I was on my way back to the warpack to give the beetles to Mannar, I just hope that he can find something to help us, because our next mission would be one of the most hardest to surpass…


	16. Chapter 15: Blood of innocents

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 15: Blood of innocents

After a couple of days Mannar finally made an antidote for the brainwashing serum, it was hard, but at least we have it a way to help these people. Also, the boy from the Empire was discharged by now, I just hope that he follows my suggestion and get back to his family as soon as he can.

After discovering a antidote to the serum we had to find out where was their next research post here in Gallia, Nazir made and investigation with some troops that he had specially trained to be good spies and turned to the east of Gallia, he had heard rumors that they had taken the Fort Oscar. In medieval times, when Gallia was ruled by Nordic kings this fort was well known by being one of the most defensive post in all Gallia, that helped many kings in that time to hold up Gallia against enemy hordes, but one of the most amazing battle evolving this fort was the battle of 675, were king Oscar held out this fort against an enemy horde for at least a month, the enemy even broke through it one time but was driven out by king Oscar and his brave warriors. He was called only king Oscar because before he was king he was just an orphan that had no family and no last name of his own, but everyone always called him Oscar and he accepted that as his name. Nobody really knew from where this king really came from, but after that last battle, the enemy horde ran away and king Oscar passed the crow to the next heir of the royal court, he just walked away saying his last words:

"I think that my job here is done, I hope that you can continue without me, sons of Gallia."

After that he turned away and was never seen again.

One of the main problems with this fort it's that he is too strong to be invaded by any force, the only thing that helped the imperials to capture it was the fact that the army forces inside had a traitor with them, he opened the gates in the heat of battle. The imperials than rushed through and the army forces were immediately surrounded and arrested, in other words, the only way that we can enter that place is if someone of our own forces could infiltrate himself there, I just hope that Nazir scout bring us the news that it's not there, otherwise, this will be a hell of a headache to us.

The next day Nazir and his troops got back and I was on my way to meet with him…

"So, what did you discovered?" I asked him.

"Well, you're not going to believe it."

After he said that we went to an empty room.

"Neroh, the place is crowded with slave soldiers, and they look even worse than the ones we fought here." He said to me.

"Well, now that's really a problem."

While we continued talking we heard someone knocking at the door, when opened we could see it was Mannar.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"I just wanted to show you this."

He showed me a little box full with darts.

"Well, I thought that if we can't capture the slave soldiers and use the anti-serum in them we could use the new solution I made, it's the same anti-serum but with a strong tranquilizer. That way, we can at the same time take them down with no collateral damage while they can be healed."

"That's actually great news, and just in time as well."

"What do you mean?"

"The place that we thought to be the next research base, the Fort of Oscar, is crowded with slave soldiers, more than one reason to believe that it is their next research base…" Nazir said to him.

"Oh! Well, than this is great news indeed."

"And also, Neroh, we are not sure, but there might be a confirmation on someone's identity…"

"Who?"

"Dr. Clementia Forster."

"What?"

Her name echoed in my head for some minutes, now we know where she was, and if we get her, we can stop it, right here, right now…

Before we started preparing our equipment and loading our tanks, Nanah and Zanna appeared to us, they were with some bags, and they looked pretty heavy.

"Brother! Brother!" Zanna shouted while running and tripping at small rock at the ground while dragging around one of the bags, she looked really excited.

"Wow! Slow down, what is it?" I said to her when she got close to me, Nanah was just a few steps behind her.

She stopped and started to get some breath to her lungs, at the time she looked a little exhausted as well.

"Look… We got new uniforms for the whole warpack!" She said pulling out a jacket out of the bag.

"But how did you?" I said surprised.

The uniforms looked pretty much like the Militia ones, except that they had darcsen colors, clearly different from the clear blue of the Militia ones, it also had a piece of darcsen cloth attached to the arm, it was made to look like as if it was tied around the arm but if you take a good look at it, you could see that it was just sewn on to it. It also had a coat of arms in both shoulders, in the left there was a raven and in the other side there was a wolf, both of them were dark colored. I don't really know why, but these coats of arms really looked pretty good although it had no meaning at all.

"Did you like it? Nanah did the design and I helped!" She said it with a big smile at her face.

"Really, you and Nanah…"

I looked at Nanah but she seemed to look to the side, trying to hide her face from my eyes. I saw her face, she appeared to be a little embarrassed, it was then that I remembered the last time we were together, I didn't though of talking to her about that at all, I guess, after this mission I'll talk to her again…

"I see… Well, job well done, both of you!" I said to them.

Zanna just looked at me with a big smile at her face while Nanah just nodded with her head in acceptance.

After that we prepared ourselves and moved out to Fort Oscar, we took about five hours marching but we got there, it was already noon and we agreed that we would have more chances to win if we attacked at night time.

Night has come and Nazir and his troops were ready, Nazir and his troops uniforms were specially made since they were a infiltration unit, their uniforms were made to be as stealth as possible, when they walk, the cloth didn't did so much noise as normal uniforms, and at the moon light they seem to disappear at the darkness of the night, they were the perfect stealth soldier, with that said, a new unit has being born in the warpack, the "Ghost Soldiers" as we named them, now a lethal force of the warpack under the cover of night.

They went first, armed with a bow, some arrows, four throwing daggers and one military knife. They started at the north side of the Fort, it appeared to be the less protected side of the Fort, when the last guard had passed by the walls they immediately started climbing the walls, barehanded. The wall was about eight or nine meters high and still they climbed incredibly fast, and they needed to, the next guard could appear at any minute now. Although I was worried about them they did just fine, sneaking around the guards they found in their way they had made to the gates controls, but as soon as they get close, we, the troops that were outside the Fort waiting, heard gun fire. Something was wrong, I knew it couldn't be our "Ghost Soldiers" because of the fact that they don't carry guns at all, we needed to hurry up and rescue them, they are a formidable unit, yes that's true, but against the entire army that was gathered in Fort Oscar they were not going to last long.

Even though the situation was seemed to be lost we had a great chance, the "Ghost Soldiers" let some of the imperial soldiers so scared that they started to flee, but away from the fortress, and they let the north gate opened to us, I guess they fought that the "Ghost Soldiers" were the main force inside the Fort. With no hesitation I ordered the tanks to rush in to help them, aiding the foot soldiers that followed them from behind, some imperials noticed this and they rushed to close the gate, they were to slow though for the tanks already passed them. I went in following them in the truck, now armed with a heavy machine gun into its back, as soon as we entered I started to fire bullets everywhere, the soldiers were many and they didn't stop coming. After fighting over half an hour we won, there was no more imperial soldiers standing, the ones that survived ran into the forest next to the Fort, I walked in the direction of Nazir and his troops…

"Hey, almost thought you guys weren't going to make it." I said to Nazir, as a joke to calm them down a little bit.

"Well, at least you got here in time…" Nazir said to me, with a smile of gratitude in his face.

"So, any casualties?"

"We lost one and three are wounded… And you?"

"Three dead, including one of the tank drivers…"

"Well, at least most of us are safe."

When he finished talking we hear a loud distorted high-pitched sound, like the sound when you put a microphone next to a speaker, after a couple of seconds it stopped and we could hear a sound of smooth static, than a voice started to talk to us…

"**Well well well! What do we have here, the so famous Darcsen Brotherhood. Your fame has being expending throughout all the Empire and any soldiers that fight here in Gallia, unfortunately, I won't be able to deal with your little pathetic warpack, I have another research center waiting for me. Oh! And don't even mind going after me, I already have a special surprise to keep you… busy…"**

After that, everything went quietly, and I wished that it would have stayed that way. Around us, five trapdoors that were well hidden opened up from the muddy ground, from there they came running like wild animals, slave soldiers. They were fast and quickly surrounded us, all darcsens, they then stopped and kept starring at us, they all looked dead, they were thin and probably didn't had a shower for weeks now, neither a proper meal, It was that old game of who attacks first looses, I slowly walked in the direction of Nazir.

"_So? What do you think?" _I asked him, with my voice as low as possible.

"_Well, there must be about three of them for each one of us…"_

"_Do you think you can open the way?"_

"_Sure, but it might take a while…"_

"_Well, do it at your own pace."_

After that I immediately pulled my gun that was in my waist and started shooting at them, the gun was specially loaded with the darts that Mannar had made and were supposed to take them down immediately, and it work just perfectly, the first slave soldier that I hit felt down to the ground in a matter of seconds, the other problem was that this was the spark for all of them to charge at us. This soldier didn't looked to have any weapons with them, they were barehanded, the only thing that they could use so far as a possible weapon was their small chains that were still attached to their wrists.

When they got close enough, I shouted:

"Remember! They are not acting by themselves, if they get to close use your guns at melee stance and knock them out!"

And so they did it, one came running at my direction with his left arm up, in a attempt to punch my chest, I dodged going to my left and then using my pistol to punch him in the stomach, he felt at the same time, knocked out.

This situation has being going on for three minutes now but we didn't get them all, they are pretty resistant, we fought that we could make them knock out by a simple hit in the head, but after some minutes they just gat up again like nothing has happened and charged at us again and again, and we were getting really tired.

"Neroh! I made a breach!" Nazir shouted

He pointed at the part where he had made the breach and I immediately ordered the tanks to get through them, we were almost getting away safe when the breach closed again when some of the slave soldiers closed the gap. We couldn't deal with all of them forever, the ones that were hit by the darts didn't got up anymore, but we didn't had anymore darts to shoot, we were doomed.

When we believed to be our end an explosion hit really close to us and some of the slave soldiers were dismembered and instantly killed, the blood rained above our heads and the limbs were flying over us in a great speed, we looked over to the west were we saw an Gallian army squad with an A-tank class.

"What the-? Who called the militaries!" I shouted.

"I don't know, but if we don't do something quickly, these slave soldiers will be all dead!" Nazir shouted back to me.

I tried to shout to the army soldiers to stop, they couldn't care less, they actually prepared themselves in their heavy machine gun that was in the tank and started shooting, our only luck is that someone noticed before me and shouted:

"**DUCK!"**

The whole warpack lay down on the ground and lowered their heads, we just got ourselves up when the sound of the gun firing stopped. When we got up and looked around we saw nothing but death and blood… It was everywhere, on the floor, on the walls, the only ones that survived were the ones we shot it with the darts.

"They're all…" I started to stutter…

"Brother…" Zanna said, trying to consulate me, but she didn't had the strength to finish the sentence.

"Why…?" Zanna drooped with her knees to the ground while she started to cry.

"Damn! We failed!" Nazir shouted angrily, giving a punch to the tank.

"We couldn't save them…" Zig said, whit his eyes down, trying to hide his sadness.

"Let's get back." I said it.

I showed no kind of emotion, I wasn't angry, sad, or disappointed.

"Brother… Are you alright?" Zanna asked me.

"I'll be even better after finding out who told the military where we were."

We reorganized ourselves and got back to the Militia H.Q. When didn't even to go with the army squad, they didn't cared for us at all, so I just let them check the Fort for more clues. When we got back, Luna came running to greet us…

"Dad, everyone, I'm glad you're all okay!" Although she seemed glad that we were alright, everyone was downhearted and sad.

"Something happened?" She asked.

Nobody said a word about it, they just diverted their eyes in other directions.

"Luna, do you know if the Commander Damon is here?" I gently asked her.

"Y- yes, he is here since today's morning… What's going on?"

I looked over to Nazir and Mannar.

"Let's go you two." I said to them.

"You better wait here, I'll explain were we get back." Mannar said to his daughter when he passed by her.

We quickly walked to Cap. Varrot's office, when we opened the door, there he was, Commander Damon, nothing more than a pig dressed in a fancy army uniform.

"Who told you about our operation?" I asked him, trying to hold my anger with in me.

"I have my ways, Mr. Neroh…" He arrogantly said back to me.

"So, did you knew that those darcsen soldiers were brainwashed? That we weren't supposed to kill them?" I shouted at his face.

"It doesn't matter. An enemy is an enemy, no matter what was made to them to decide that."

"You!" I shouted with anger while I pulled him by his blue collar of his fancy army uniform.

When I did that, the guards that were in the room aimed at me with their machine guns, without hesitation, Mannar and Nazir aimed back at them by quickly pulling out their pistols out.

At that time, I just wanted to punch him, to get that smile of his face, that ugly pig face! But I hold myself, I let him go and turned back to the door.

"Let's go." I said to Nazir and Mannar

They lowered their pistols and followed me.

"You know, you should be thankful, if it wasn't for me, you would all be that by now." Damon said to me.

I stopped at the door…

"And if it wasn't for you, many others would have being saved." I said.

"Don't be so proud yourself, you little brat! Be thankful that my soldiers came to help your kind, darcsen!" He said, with an angry tone on his voice.

How ironic is that he said that he helped my kind, but still exterminated so many of it.

"Just make sure that while you stay in this base you will not hide any more potential threats to mother Gallia from us anymore"

"No problem, cause as soon as we rest, will leave." I said to him.

"Oh! And don't worry, I'll be very, very thankful when I see you dead!" I said to him, looking at his eyes.

His eyes showed nothing more than wrath and ignorance.

After s a while, the army squad returned, some of them were actually kindhearted and convinced the others to bring the bodies of the slave soldiers that were slain that night. Many families reunited by tragedy, many friends that haven't seen each other for years now just looked at them to say good bye…

I was next to a building, with my back against the wall, trying to gather my thoughts and see what we were going to do now, we can't stay, so well have to find a new base. Also, I was trying to convince myself that I can still lead this warpack, trying to convince myself that I could still save many others, but it was really hard…

"Hey, Neroh, are you okay?"

I raised my head that was looking at the arid ground and turned to left, it was Nanah.

"I'm… I'm okay…" I said.

I set down the ground with my back still against the building and Nanah set by my side, we started to look at the skies.

"You know… To tell you the truth, I don't know if I can continue to do this any longer…" I said to Nanah.

"What?" She said surprised.

"The last mission, we failed… I foreseen the fact that the slave soldiers were going to appear from hidden places, neither the fact that the army squad would have showed up and killed them all… If I had just… made a better plan… or had more soldiers… maybe…" I said and kept quiet for some seconds.

"What are you saying Neroh? If it wasn't for you, we would be dead, remember? It was you that saves us that day, when we were coming to Bruhl." She said, trying to cheer me up.

"But still…"

"If it wasn't for you, the survivors that we rescued from many imperial slave squads from the time that we got here to now, they would all be working at ragnite mined for the benefit of the Empire. They wouldn't have any kind of freedom and they would probably work to their deaths, and you saved them all! And if wasn't for you, the Empire would have won the war using a sneaky attack with that warship they had hidden at the coasts of Gallia!"

Even though she was trying really hard, I just wouldn't snap out of it, I just stared at the ground the whole time without saying a word.

"And also… If I didn't pass all of these things with you, I wouldn't have felt in love with you…"

When she said that it was like the whole world around me stopped for some seconds, I turned my face to see her, with a surprised expression on it, but she wasn't embarrassed or anything, she was looking at the skies and showing off a little smile.

"You know, all the time that I passed with you showed me the way that you act and do things, you always care more about the others than of yourself and you're always trying to help in any way you can. You're also kind and gentle, and no matter the situation you always stand up for the warpack and all of us, you always do what is right, and protect those that have no one to protect them."

She closed her eyes and lowered her head, she turns her face to me with a smooth expression, her eyes were shining with the moon light and she had a small sweet smile.

"Neroh, I know that you can save more people, I know that you can command us, I believe in you. Don't let one loss disrupt who you are, there are more people out there that need your help!" She said.

"I know what you mean, I just don't know… What if I can't do it, what if I fail again?"

She then hugged my arm and gently laid her head on my shoulder.

"Don't worry, you'll find a way out, you always have. Even if things look difficult, we all will always be by your side to help you…" She got quiet for some time.

"And if you want, I'll always be there for you too…" She looked at my face with a gentle small smile.

"Nanah…"

At that moment our eyes met, and our expressions changed, we both showed smooth eyes, she made a small opening in her mouth and slowly we reached for each other's lips. A sweet kiss that carried the feelings she had for me, that's what she gave me. We stayed there for a couple of hours watching the night sky.

That night, it felt like the stars were brighter than ever.

The other day we started packing everything, I have thanked Cap. Varrot for everything and I explained to her my motives for why the warpack couldn't stay there any longer. She understood it completely.

I was helping some soldiers of the warpack by moving boxes of ammunition when Nanah accidentally bumped into me, before she could hit the ground I stretched my arm and held her hand. I pulled her back to me and said:

"Be careful there Nanah."

"Oh! Thanks!" She smiled back to me.

"Nanah, could you help us with this?" Zanna shouted to her.

"Sure, no problem!" She ran off to Zanna's direction.

She looked pretty radiant to me, but I can't blame her, I myself fell a little happy for last night…

"Hey! Neroh!"

I turned around from where the voice came, it was Gin.

"Oh! Hey Gin!" I greeted him.

"Thanks for all the support you have given us so far! So, I guess after that is goodbye hun?"

"Yeah, just for now though, let's meet up again after the war is over."

"Good idea! Also, I'll not be able to be next to Nanah for now so, take care of her, brother-in-law!" He said

"Wha-? You knew?"

"Of course I knew it, Nanah has being talking about you since the first time we got back to the Militia H.Q.! Just be sure to take care of her alright?"

"Don't worry, I'll never let her be harmed…"

We shake hands and he got back to his squad

"Well, frankly you were taking quite a time to act."

I turned around to see who was talking but didn't saw anyone, than I looked up at our tank that was next to me and laid above the cannon was Nazir.

"What do you mean? You already knew before me?" I was stunned.

"Oh brother, you're probably the only person in the whole warpack that didn't noticed."

I turned to my back and saw Zanna standing there.

"Zanna!" I got a little surprised.

"Seriously Neroh! You're quite the slow guy…" She said.

That conversation served only to embarrass me more and more, after a while we were all good to go, the only person left is Lokky, I walked into the hospital wing to see if he was ready, I opened the door to his room and asked him:

"So, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah! Let me just get my handbag here."

We got out of the hospital wing and were on our way back to the warpack, we said goodbye to squad seven and the others we met there and moved on.

At the back of one of the trucks was me, Nanah and Nazir.

"So… What do we do now?"

"I don't know, but well be okay, I know that now!" I said smiling to Nanah

"Thank you." I said to Nanah

She just answered by leaning on my shoulder.

Now we are need to find somewhere safe to settle our base, I wonder what place would be good enough for us to place a base…


	17. Chapter 16: A new place to rest

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 16: A new place to rest

We are in the road for three days now, it has been three days since we left the Militia H.Q. and we haven't found a place to set our base yet. It hasn't been as bad as we thought it would be. After we left, every village and small town we pass through offered us supplies and shelter for some days, also a whole bunch of new recruits. In one of the villages that we had passed there were rumors about a place where several other warpacks had make a suitable base, protected by big metal wall, a place that was called by them by the name "War House". We asked them for directions and after a day travelling we had found the place, it was the way that the rumors said it would be, just a huge circular metal wall with one improvised huge gate, around the inside part of the wall there was at least six wooden towers that were loaded with heavy machine guns and two man, one with a sniper rifle and the other one using the heavy machine gun.

We slowly approached to the gates with our three tanks and the rest of the warpack that was been carried in the trucks, for not a single moment the machine guns at the towers never stopped aiming at us. When we got close to the gate we heard a strong voice shouting:

"Who are you, and what are your business here?"

"I am Neroh! Commander of The Darcsen Brotherhood! We're here looking for shelter!"

Everything went dead quiet for a couple of minutes, everyone got tensed up.

"Okay, just hold on a second, we'll open the gates!" He shouted.

The gates than started to slowly open, we walked in, almost not believing in what we were seeing. There was a huge quantity of vehicles, tanks of all varieties as well as weapons, a lot of groups of tents with each of them having a different flag with it.

"Well, I can't believe my own eyes!"

I turned to my right and saw a tall, bald man, with a great red bear.

"Hun?" I said.

"What? Aren't you The Darcsen Brotherhood? The legendary warpack that everyone here is hearing about for the last months?"

"Legendary?"

"Why yes! Didn't you stop the sneaky invasion of the Empire's navy at the north region of the country? Wasn't your warpack that had saved so many survivors so far? Wasn't your warpack that found out about the slave soldiers and even created a anti-serum for them?"

"Well, that's true…"

To think of it now, we are quite the "Legend" that he's speaking of…

"Well than! Come here!" After saying this he gave me a "bear hug" that completely take all the air out of my lungs, I had to sit down a little bit to recover myself.

"My name is Frederic Allencar, commander of the "Northern Dragon"! One of the finest warpacks in the whole War House!" He said, letting out a frenetic laugh afterwards.

This guy seemed awfully strange to me, it made me feel really uncomfortable…

"But never mind that, let me show you the rest of the War House!"

We walked around the whole place and saw thousands of warpacks, most of them didn't heavy a real big number of members, and they go to the numbers of thirty to forty. Frederic explains me that there are five major warpacks that rule this gigantic metal fort, they are: "Colossal Amazons", "Outlaw Revolver", "Fire Sword", "Heaven Arms" and "Northern Dragon".

He says to me that when things got a bit problematic to the warpacks, they gathered themselves together and using their own founds, they constructed this fortification, it is a safe place for any warpack to set their base, but the rest, the supplies, food, water, ammo and weapons are up to each of the warpacks to find themselves, they could only provide us with the shelter.

"But now that you are here, and that your numbers are confirmed, we'll need to change the list…" He said to me.

"What list?"

"Follow me."

He showed me an improvised tavern. When we walked in the place was full of members of different warpacks, drinking and partying, the place looked really alive. Frederic pointed above the bar are, there was a big list with names of different warpacks, in one side there are names and in the other there are the how much members they have.

Frederic walked to the center of the tavern and shouted:

"Alright, listen up! We're going to change the list again, The Darcsen Brotherhood just got here!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and paid attention to Frederic. They looked really surprised.

"And here is their commander! Neroh!" He said while pulling me close to him.

I literally saw jaws hit the ground, and they stood that way until they changed the list. It had us at the top of all of them, with at least one hundred and forty soldiers, I knew we had a really big number of soldiers, but I didn't knew that they were that much.

"Now look at that! You're in number one! I wouldn't expect lees from the commander of the Darcsen Brotherhood! Ha ha ha!" Frederic said.

For an instant, in the endless silence in the tavern, clapping could be heard. It was the sound of one person only and it was slow, like in a sarcastic way to clap.

"Well well, congratulations for such an achievement!"

I turned to my left and there was a man, in a blue uniform with white details on it. The blue kind of remembered me the same color as the Valkyrian flames I have seen in story books when I was younger.

"But don't get yourself too proud for all those things darcsen! You will have to do much more to redeem yourself for the crimes your people committed hundreds of years ago…" He said while he moved his glass cup making the whisky go around and around on the cup.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not doing this to redeem myself from any crimes that you talk about, I'm just doing this to protect my homeland. Besides, I don't really think that my people had made anything wrong, but people like you might want to redeem for the entire preconception that you have for my people."

The man shake in anger, he quickly smashes his cup of whisky against the counter of the bar and gets up.

"You little!" He turned with a pistol on his right hand, but before he could fire a single bullet a quickly dodged and moved forward, then grabbed his right arm with my left hand and lift it up. He fires and the shot pass through the ceiling.

"Adrian! Stop this right now! How dare you fire against an ally?" Frederic shouted.

"Ha! Ally you say, the very son of destruction? Don't make me laugh Frederic, the only allies to me are those illuminated by the holy fire of the Valkyrur!"

He turned and left the bar.

"Hey, when you monkeys start a fight, start outside the bar and let the others drink in peace!"

A woman that was sitting right by the side where Adrian was said.

"Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt anyone." I said to her.

She nodded at my actions and also left the bar.

"Those two… Who were they?" I asked Frederic.

"Adrian Manius and Bianca Diomara. They are both commanders of two of the principal warpacks qw have here…"

Frederic explained me again about the warpacs…

Adrian Manius, commander of "Heaven Arms". They are an specific warpack made to those who follow the path of the Valkyrur, they of course believe in the Darcsen Calamity and that the Valkyria were the savers of the world, bullshit if you aske me…

Bianca Diomara, commander of "Colossal Amazons". A warpack composed only of woman, like true amazons, these women are athletic and very strong. Bianca don't get really well with man, she see them as simple worms, as most of the warpack.

Richard Gennadi, commander of "Outlaw Revolver". Their warpack was composed most of people that in the past were criminals, from the small to the worst crimes. This warpack for them is a chance to redeem themselves from those crimes, fighting for mother Gallia.

Andrea Keller, commander of "Fire Sword". The soldiers of the warpack were once all veterans in the formal Gallian Army, but after serving for years, they have seen howthe army has changed, and how corruption and politics had affected the glorious force that it was, now they fight for Gallia but without the army's help. They consider themselves as the true defenders of Gallia who follow their own laws for the preservation of Gallia's military force.

And the last, but not the worst, Frederic Allencar, commander of "Northern Dragon". His warpack is composed of several people from the Empire that had found a new home here in Gallia, and that they'll fight to defend it! The reason it's called "northern" It's because great part of this warpack was formed only by soldiers from the north that moved here at the same time as Frederic.

After knowing those things I returned to the warpack, they were already setting camp near some other small warpacks, when I was going to talk to Nazir and the others a loud voice interrupted me:

"C'mon now my faithful soldiers of the path of the Valkyrur, it's time for us to make our prayers!" It was Adrian, followed by his soldiers.

"Yes sir!" The group shouted back.

As they walked near our camp, I could notice Adrian better than the time before. He was almost the same age as me, maybe two years older, but we basically had the same stature, he's hair was blond and short. The only thing I noticed from its uniform that's different was the coat of arms, it was just this circle with spiral signs coming from the center to the borders of it. They also carried a small blue stalactite thing, it was also perfectly spiral and they carried them as necklaces.

They turned around and saw our camp, but every single look they give us felt like they were disgusted by our very presence there.

"Don't worry about them, you'll get used to it after sometime. You're not the only darcsens here after all."

A man with a long brown coat and a cowboy hat covering his face said, he looked rather suspicious. He lifted the front of his hat with a little hit from his right finger and showed his face.

He looked as if he was almost at he's thirties, but I think he's a little younger than that. He's hair was dark as the night and he had a long ponytail that goes all the way from his head to the end of his back, his uniform was also brown, with some darker brown details. He's coat of arms was an old rusty revolver by one side and a rope in the other (those that are used to hang people) and between them it's a pair of handcuffs connecting the both of them (that's all in the same coat of arms, in both of his sholders).

" Sorry if I look kind of suspicious, everyone in my warpack is that way." He said.

"In your warpack?" Zanna asked him.

"Oh my! Where are my manners, I am Richard Gennadi, commander of the Outlaw Revolver!" He said while he take of his hat and putted against his chest.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Neroh, commander of The Darcsen Brotherhood!"

We greet each other by shaking hands.

"But it's quite a surprise to see such a legend here at our humble War House!"

"This is getting quite annoying…" I muttered

In the middle of our conversation a young man came running into our direction, he used the same uniform as Richard.

"Sir! We got some problems! It's her again!" He said, almost out of breath.

"Her?" I asked, confused.

"Not again. Well, show me the way" Richard said.

We ran to keep up with the soldier that was running back desperately, when we arrived at the place, the situation looked tense. At one side there was the "Colossal Amazons" and at the other side there were the "Outlaw Revolver". At the middle there was Bianca Diomara, holding a soldier from the "Outlaw Revolver" by his neck in the air, with only one of her hands.

Bianca Diomara was a tall woman, she had a long white hair that ended at the same height of her knees, she also had huge bangs that covered her entire left eye and she looked kind of young but the way she act and her voice tell otherwise. Her uniform was orange with details of golden yellow, her coat of arms in both shoulders showed a woman, wearing a helmet holding a shield in her left arm and a spear in her right hand. She's wearing a white long dress and a armor in the upper part of the body, seemed a really proud "Amazon" to me.

"Let's calm down everybody! What's going on here!" Richard shouted.

"One of you maggots try to touch one of my precious warriors!" Bianca answered

"No… she's *coff* lying! *coff* *coff*" Said the soldier that was being hold in the air by Bianca, he could barely breath.

"What! You're calling me a Liar! You little…!" She said while she started to put more and more strength in her hand.

The man starts to struggle to get himself free of Bianca's hand. At this point, both warpacks started pulling their guns out and aim at each other.

Richard ran to her direction and stopped by her side doing a drift in the dirt ground.

"What a minute! Couldn't we just resolve this in another way, maybe a romantic dinner, my lady?" He said and blinked to her.

When Bianca saw that, her serious face changed to an aggressive expression, she dropped the soldier she was holding and he felt on the ground in his knees, trying to breath. She than immediately clenched her fists and punched him right in his face. The punch was so strong that he had flew at least two meters from where he was while he's hat felt on the ground not even following its owner for even a centimeter, it felt right where he was.

"Commander!" He's soldiers shouted, four of than ran to help him up.

They pulled him up, getting his face off the ground and set him against a wooden wall, he's nose was bleeding and I think it was also broken.

"Hmff. I don't need to get dirty with your blood! C'mon girls, let's get back to our camp!" She shouted.

She passed by me followed by her "amazons".

"If you don't want to end up the same way he did, don't get any trouble with us!" She said to me.

I think I felt my whole body freeze in fear…

I ran to see how Richard was.

"Hey Richard! Are you okay!"

"I'm fine, this punch felt nothing like the one I took it last week." He said.

"L- last week?" I said, surprised.

"Yeah, the commander might be a little obsessed by Bianca…" One of his soldiers said.

"Yeah! I don't get it commander, why do you keep up with this torture? Don't you see the way she treats you, she's never-" The other soldier that was by his side was interrupted by Richard when he raised his hand for him to stop talking.

"I said to you all didn't I? I'm going to conquer that woman's heart, even if it is the last thing I do in my life! HA HA HA!" He said, letting out a strange forced laugh out.

Although at first he sounded and acted like a womanizer I'm pretty sure that there was a deep felling behind his actions.

I got back to our camp to help unpack thing. Nazir was helping Lenna, that was trying to carry the heavy boxes with ammo, it was almost a funny situation. Zanna, Nanah, and Zig, carrying food supplies, helping the other members of the wapack and Mannar and Luna were checking on the injured and sick members of the warpack.

Everything seemed to be going white well so far, but one problem appeared, we have lost two tank drivers, one for a extreme fever that was in its final stages and the other one at the assault of Fort Oscar. Now we had three tanks, but only one could be drived.

"Now, what are we going to do?" Nazir asked me.

"Well, if you need a tank driver right away, I might be of some use." Zaki said.

"I only learned the basics, so I'm not really that good of a driver" He completed.

"No problem, it'll be just until we can an experienced driver." I said it.

"What about the other one?" Zig asked.

We lowered our heads and scratched the back of them, we kept thinking for some minutes.

"W- well…" Lokky raised his hand.

"I'm quite good with tanks, my dad used to be a driver, so he taught me everything that I'll need to know, and I might even be able to get them upgraded if you would like to." He said.

Although we were hesitating at first, because of the incidents that had occurred back at the Militia H.Q. We saw that he was trying to compensate for that problem.

"Okay than! You are now classified as an official tank driver for The Darcsen Brotherhood! Be proud boy!" I said.

Everyone cheered for him, he got kind of embarrassed, and we had a good laugh for the moment.

It's already night time, and everyone made camp fires around the base, I was sitting in one of them, trying to think of the supplies and all the other thing that we had to sustain ourselves here.

"Hey!" Nanah said.

"Mind if I sit here?" She asked

"Oh! Hi! No problem!" I said to her.

She set by my side and we started a small talk, it wasn't really anything important, but we just wanted to hear each other's voice and be able to hold each other's hands, we were just happy that we could have sometime alone for ourselves. Not too much unfortunately.

I started to hear loud laughs and when I turned, I saw something I would call an "invasion" from soldiers that were led by Frederic, all of them were drunk, so drunk that even though we were about six meters from each other I could smell the beer coming from their breathing.

Their uniforms were dark blue with details of cyan, they had a dragons head spitting fire as a coat of arms and in the front part of their uniforms they head an old Nordic symbol that appeared to be tree triangles connected together.

Frederic rushed to where I was and hugged.

"My friend! Let us spend the night with our warpacks together as celebration for your arriving here!" He said.

I almost passed out from his drunken breath together with his bear hugging. Nanah starts to laugh, well, I guess this was kind of a laughing situation…

"Sorry for that Neroh, but if this drunken pig didn't start to break everything down at the tavern we wouldn't be bothering you guys here." I looked over Frederic and I saw Richard.

Frederic let me down and turned to Richard.

"What are you talking about, if it wasn't for you who started picking on those men, we wouldn't had fight them and we wouldn't have been kicked out!" He shouted at him.

"Watch out! You're making me take a bath of your spit! You crazy fat pig!" Frederic shouted back.

They both started to stare each other in the eyes and after seconds of silence they both let a loud laugh.

"W- well, I guess they are friends alright." I said it, a little confused by the situation.

We spent the night around the camp fires, all three of the warpack, some sharing their stories while they drink together and others dancing and singing while letting out a good laugh. In the camp fire that we wore, we wore singing while playing a guitar, Frederic was singing an old tale from the old Nordic people that he had learned. After he finished he said.

"Okay! Who wants to go next?" He shouted while holding the guitar in one hand.

"Oh! Here, here! Neroh can play the guitar!" Zanna said while she pulls my arm up.

"Really? You can play Neroh?" Zig asked me, surprised.

"Well, well, that's quite a surprise hun?" Nazir said, he was just chilling out with his back against a tree that was near the camp fire.

"I guess I could try it, although I'm a little rusty, so don't expect any promises here." I said that.

I was kind of nervous since the last time I played the guitar was a couple of years ago, but I still got the notes right. Everyone applauded.

"Now we just need a singer! Who has a good voice?" Richard shouted

"Here!" Zanna and Luna pulling Nanah up by her arms from where she was sitting.

"Hun? N- no, I can't" She said it, she was clearly embarrassed.

"Oh c'mon Nanah, we heard you singing before, you are great! Believe me!" Zanna said to her.

"B- but I-" Nanah was interrupted by Lenna that started to push her towards the center of our circle in the camp fire, so she was started to sing and that she could be the center of all the attentions.

"O- okay, I'll try!" She said, believing in herself.

"Okay than, I'll give the first notes." I said to her.

She responded by shaking her head in affirmation, and she let out a smile. She then took a deep breath and let it out. I stared to play the music and her voice followed perfectly, she started to sing an old Darcsen song that talks about love and the way life it is. Her angelical voice made all of us to close our eyes and relax, it made fell like our problems had all lifted from our minds, it even felt like we were not even at war anymore. After she finished singing, we all opened our eyes and start to applaud her, she felt embarrassed and her cheeks started to blush, it was quite a fun night that we had. Hours after that we all agreed that it was time for all of us to rest, we were all exhausted.

Nanah walk to my direction and said to me:

"Good night!" After that she gave me a sweet kiss and we stood like that for some seconds.

After we finished I looked at her eyes and while I stroke her cheek I said:

"Good night!" At that moment the both of us let out small smile and she got herself to the girls tents, followed by the other girls that were trying to cover their silly laughing with their hands.

"Let's go Romeo! We'll got a lot to do tomorrow and we'll need to be rested!" Nazir said while he poked me in my back.

I went directly to my bed and started thinking, what will wait for us the next day…


	18. Chapter 17: The marauders

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 17: The marauders

In the next morning we started to check everything in our camp, the party we had last night with the "Northern Dragon" and "Outlaw Revolver" let most of us exhausted, but, little by little we started to get up and quickly get to work. We noticed that we were low on ammo and we started to think were we could get some.

"No problem, I think I know the place!" Nazir said to us.

Nazir and I walked to a warpack camp where there was a strange mark in their flag, I really couldn't tell what was that, it looked like an ancient symbol of the times of the Valkyrur.

"Well, long time no see!" A man that was next to the camp said to nazir.

"I really can't believe it! Are you sure you're not stalking me?" Nazir asked the man.

"What are you talking about? It's the destiny, I tell you!" The man responded.

"Oh! Sorry there Neroh, this is a friend of mine, he's name is Gurol." He said to me.

"Nice to meet you!" Gurol said to me with a smile on his face.

"The same to you." I answered him.

"But I couldn't actually believe it when I heard rumors that you had joined a warpack, it's not really like you." He said to Nazir.

"Well, let's just say that I was tired of being a bounty hunter, plus, this job is easier with the help of my companions."

"I see than…"

"But actually, I have a special favor to ask you."

"What?"

"Could you help us providing some ammo?"

"I guess I could, if you had paid the last time you asked me for help!"

"Wait, paid?" I asked them, interrupting the conversation.

"Oh yeah! Neroh, Gurol is one of the greatest weapons dealers in all of Europa."

"Weapons… dealer?"

"Yep! That's right! No matter where you are in Europa, you can find a small weapons dealer from my little company, just by following the marks." He said pointing to the flag.

"But, not now actually, everyone has been summoned here to form the Golden Armory warpack! After all, this is a great deal for us, we can provide both assistance for the warpacks and help defend mother Gallia!" He finished.

"It's not really your thing to be so patriotic, even because you're not even gallian…" Nazir said.

We both stood there looking at him, thinking how idiot he was.

"Well… Okay! It's really just for the business!" He said to us.

"Okay than! I'll have-" Nazir was talking but was interrupted by Gurol.

"Wow there buddy! I can't sell you anything before you pay your debt!" Gurol said.

"Damn it!" Nazir cursed.

"Well, you can sell for me right?" I asked him.

"That's only going to depend on wherever you can pay it or not."

"Here is the list of everything we need." I handled a small list to him.

He kept his eyes on the list, moving his eyes left to right, reading it. After reading the list entirely, he started to murmur while he had his hand against his chin, he looked really thoughtful, I think he was making calculations.

"That will be around three thousand Ducats!" He said

"What? Don't you think that's a little too much?" Nazir argued with him.

"This are difficult times my friend, I have to assure myself that my people and I can have a safe future if anything goes wrong in this war, and one of the things that I'll need to assure that this future happens is money." Gurol said.

Before Nazir opened his mouth again to argue with him I handled Gurol two big sacks with Ducats that counting together were about the three thousand he asked for.

"Just make sure that they are delivered to our camp, okay?"

"Sure, you're the boss!" Gurol said, while he was counting the money note by note.

After some minutes the new equipment was delivered in time. The members of the warpack started opening the crates like it was Christmas time, it was already time for us to buy some new weapons, we noticed that the weapons we got in our series of battles against the Empire were beginning to get rusty and soon, they would be useless. We also got metal parts for our tanks so that we could repair them, we were had only maintained them moving so far because we used patchwork in almost everything inside them, we started to dismount them and to put the new parts on when a soldier that was on watch came running all the way back to the "Northern Dragon". When he got there we heard shouting everywhere. Nazir, Mannar and I got running there to know what's going on, but halfway we saw Ferderic and Richard walking fast to the principal gate of the "War House".

"What's going on?" I asked Richard while we were trying to keep up with them.

"We got a big problem, that's what going on." He answered.

When we got to the walls, next to the principal gate we saw from a distance an APC coming to us, been chased down by some unknown soldier that were riding on horses while they throw molotovs at the APC.

"What's going one Frederic?" Adrian asked Frederic while he was coming up to the walls, followed by Bianca.

"I'm not sure…"

At that moment a soldier that was in one of the watch towers came running at us.

"Sir, you must hear this!"

We followed him to the base of one of the towers, inside there was a table with two coffee mugs on it and a radio were one of the soldiers was trying to take up a transmission.

"Repeat again soldier, I didn't copy you!" The soldier said it in the microphone.

"We…a-ar-…" A female voice was appearing in the transmission, but there was too much interference.

"Wait a sec…" Richard said while he was trying to get the interference off by fixing the radio's buttons.

"I repeat! We're under fire from an unknown hostile faction! I am Commander Andrea Keller asking the main base to open the gates!" The voice said.

"Fire Sword?" I asked, looking at Richard.

"Yeah, but what happened, she had at least thirty soldier to scout the forest, and she's really talented as well, how could she be outnumbered by an ambush so easily?" He said.

"That doesn't matter right now! We need to open the gates!" Frederic said.

"Still, we can't let them get in here while they're been chased. We need to cut them down first."

"Then let's do this!" Richard said.

We ran up to the highest point of the watch tower.

"You two, eliminate the hostiles!" Richard shouted to the two soldiers that were there.

One of them picked up a sniper rifle and aimed, but after a few seconds he lowered the rifle.

"What's wrong?" Richard asked.

"We can't shoot, they are out of range."

"But they won't resist against them for much longer, you have to try!" Frederic said.

"I'm sorry sir, but it's impossible!" The soldier answered.

"Give me that and move aside!" I shouted to the soldier while I picked the rifle from him.

"Nazir, some help from you could be useful right now." I said to him while I get into a firing position and started aiming to see how many hostiles were there.

"Got it!" He said.

He turned around and whistled, after that a ghost soldier came running inside with a bow that he gave Nazir.

"Okay, I counted ten of them, five on each side, you take the ones on the right and I take the ones on the left." I said to him.

"Roger!"

I lifted the rifle a little up to the skies and Nazir did the same with his bow, except that he aimed higher. Five shots came out of the rifle, one shot, one kill, the same thing goes to Nazir, every single arrow he shot landed right on its target.

"Remember soldier, nothing is impossible, you just have to try it harder." I said, giving his rifle back while he stood looking at the fields as the APC was coming, still not believing in what we did.

"You sure got some skills boys!" Richard said to us.

"Okay, but it still might not be safe, I'll position some of my soldiers over the wall with mortars and one of our tanks just to make sure that they'll enter safely if anymore hostiles appear." I said to them.

"I'll do it as well." Said Adrian, looking at me with the hate in his eyes.

Whe positioned ourselves but nothing happened, they opened the gate and the APC was able to get in without trouble. As they were passing through the gate a transmission came in…

"… Hey! Make sure to thank whoever was that cut those hostiles down, he saved our lives!" Andrea said.

"No problem, actually, I think you'll be able to thank them yourself." Richard answered.

When the APC finally entered they closed the gates and any warpack available of medical supply helped the injured to get out of the damaged APC. One of the last ones that came out was their commander, Andrea Keller. Their uniform were almost as the same to the Army of Gallia, except for their coat of arms in their shoulders, it was the symbol of two sabers crossing each other and in the middle a sword that was pointed up with flames all around it, around all of them was a laurel wreath.

Andrea was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life, she had a long dark hair that came all the way down her back and small bangs that covered her forehead.

"Andrea, meet Neroh, commander of the Darcsen Brotherhood and second in command Nazir, they were the heroes that saved you guys back there." Richard said.

"No wonder why we were saved so easily, thank you, both of you!" She said to us.

After that we went to a main tent located at the "Outlaw Revolver's" camp, we were trying to understand what happened.

"Andrea, what happened out there? You head more than thirty experienced soldiers with you out there and now you return back with only twelve survivors? How did this happened?" Richard asked her.

She looked at the ground, her expression showed how concerned she was.

"When we got into the forest to see if the rumors about an strange thief group acting there was real, we thought we were ready against a small group like in the rumors, but we were wrong… we were slaughtered even before we could think of a plan to do anything, the only thing I could do was to save the ones that had survived the first assault, so I gathered them up into the APC and led than back here, but we were pursued, if it wasn't for you two, we would be already dead…" She said.

In the middle of the discussion a soldier that was at the watch tower came running inside the tent.

"Sir, we have more trouble, big ones!" He said.

The man looked unbelievably pale and scared for his life.

"Lead us than!" Richard said.

We ran back to the main gate and when we got back there, I couldn't believe my own eyes. A gigantic horde of thieves, riding in wild horses, they had weapons and molotovs waving in the air and screaming out like crazy man.

"Now, that sure is a big problem." I said.


	19. Chapter 18: Demand and conquest

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 18: Demand and conquest

We couldn't believe our own eyes when we saw that, a horde of thieves that has hundreds and hundreds of mobile units, looking like crazy man, blood drunk. But they all calmed down when one of them that used a white cape raised his hand, he approached the gates mounted in his black horse, even though he was meters away from us we could already smell the scent of death in his cloths.

"I demand a meeting with the local commanders!" He shouted at the gates.

We looked at each other.

"We can't go out there, will be killed for sure!" Frederic said.

"So! What is your decision?" The man shouted again.

We kept quiet for some seconds trying to think of what to do when Richard approached the gates…

"Open the gates!" He ordered the soldiers.

"What? But sir, it's too dangerous!" The soldier said.

"Don't question my orders soldier! Open the gates!" He shouted to the soldier.

The soldier opened the gates and we prepared ourselves for whatever it was going to happen, and when the gates finally opened there was no movement from both sides. The man that shouted at the gates started walking to our direction and we as commanders of the six greatest warpacks of the "War House" walked forward to meet this strange man.

When both groups got close enough the man raised his hand and the raiders behind him lay their weapons down, we did the same.

"Who are you?" Richard asked him.

"I am Dieter! The great commander of this magnificent army you see before you!" He shouted while raising both of his arms in the air.

"And what are your business here?" Frederic asked.

"A simple request is what I have indeed, in the name of the great Prince Maximillian I command you to surrender right now and give up of this giant metal fort to the glory of the Empire!" The man said.

Some minutes have passed and everyone went quiet, the tension in the air was great, and everyone was prepared to anything. Suddenly, Richard started to laugh, up to the skies.

"What is it so funny insect?" Dieter asked him.

"Surrender in the name of Maximillian? Give up of this fort to the glory of the Empire? I would say don't make me laugh but you already did! Do you really think that we are giving up of this fort to the Empire because you have a big army? Don't come here playing with us boy, we are citizens of mother Gallia! We will fight even to our deaths if it means to protect Gallia and its people!" Richard answered him.

The man clenched his fist angered and he shouted.

"Fine! If that's the way you want that's how it's gonna be!"

He turned back and as soon as we could e close the giant metal gate, although we thought that they would start to fire immediately at us they turned around mounted in their horses and started to run back, we got a little confused.

"What are they doing? Aren't they going to attack us?" Frederic asked.

"They are, this is just the preparation! Hurry and get all your soldiers in position!" Richard shouted to us.

We ran back to our camps and started to move our troops around the fort's wall, the minor warpacks started to do the same. We were ready and still there was no attack coming from the raiders.

"Do you think they've given up?" I asked Richard.

"I don't think so…" He answered me.

When I was going to ask him why we heard an explosion coming from the west side, we as commanders of the biggest warpacks rushed there to see what happened. When we got there, there was a huge crack on the metal wall of the fort and several wounded soldiers laying on the ground, in the other side we could see the raiders from a distance, they used old artillery equipment, the types that were used in the Great War, I didn't even knew how were they operating those things, they looked like relics to me. The type of artillery machine they used was a cannon that was dislocated with the help of horses, still, that was easier for them than to have a tank that it's slower.

"Quick! Get up! They're coming!" Richard shouted to the soldiers that were on the floor.

Frederic and I started to help the injured and to get our soldiers at the top of the walls, snipers at the towers to take out the artillery and lancers and heavy machine-gun units to slow down their waves, it was working, but their numbers won't stop coming and we were almost our of ammo.

"Nazir! Take the Ghost Soldiers and put them on the breach of the wall! They are more experience fighting hand-to-hand and will give us some time!" I ordered Nazir

"Roger that!" He answered.

Still, it would give us more time for what? We can't flee and there is no way that we could win this battle in the state that our troops are now, if only they didn't made that hole on the wall…

As we continued to fight one of Richard's soldiers came up running to me…

"Mr. Neroh! Sir! We have an squad of tanks coming from the south! But we don't know if they are friendly or not!" He said to me.

"What? Show me where they are!" I ordered him.

We crossed the fort back to the southern walls and when we got up them I saw a gigantic squad of heavy tanks, they looked like to be a group of veterans, when I checked them again with my binoculars I saw that their cannons started to change to a mortar position, in the worst case, they could be enemies that were trying to get inside the War House from the south.

"Everyone! Take cover!" I shouted to the soldiers that were nearby.

They fired, but for my surprise they were actually aiming for the marauders, they turned to face the unknown force of tanks but they were no match for them, when they got close enough they were shoot down by the heavy machine guns from the tanks. Some have survived and ran for their lives, some others had been captured. It was a huge shook to know that a group of bandits that were about hundreds became nothing more than twelve bandits when the fight was over, we captured four of them.

When the battle was over, me and Frederic started to clean up the battle field and fixing the breach on the gigantic metal wall while Richard and the others were gone to meet that strange tank squad that just saved our lives. When I was digging to make the graves I saw one of Frederic's soldiers carrying the body of the marauder's leader, he didn't looked such a big threat now hun…

When we were done with that I came back to see how was the warpack, I checked on everyone and they were all fine, the ones that received most of the damage from that battle were Nazir and the Ghost Soldiers, they were the ones that stayed on the frontlines holding the enemies, but they'll be okay as well.

When Richard and the others got back they said that the tank squad was another warpack called "Metal Pain", all that he knew so far was that the leader of that squad was a really rich person and that explains how they got so many tanks of such high quality. Behind him it was a boy of about the same age as me, he has short hair and their uniforms consisted of two separated colors, their jackets were gray colored while their pants were the same blue as the Militia's uniforms and their coat of arms was a sword crimped to a rock on the ground while a snake comes around her from the ground to the top.

"Hello! Welcome to the War House!" I said to him.

"Thank you! It's nice to meet you!" He answered.

Well, at least he is nice, much better than some people around here(Adrian) if you know what I mean…

"My name is Raphael Adelelmo, and I'm here to join the War House!" He said.

"Well, you are more than welcome here Raphael, after all, you did save our skins back there!" Ricahrd said to him.

We helped Raphael set his camp while Richard and Frederic interrogated the captured marauders.

After an hour Richard and Frederic meet up with me and the other leaders of the major warpacks to discuss what they had founded out.

"So, what do you got?" Bianca asked him.

"It looks like that the situation has changed pretty bad for us…" He answered.

"What do you mean?" Andrea asked.

"Apparently the Empire made the same thing as Gallia creating warpacks, but their warpacks are composed by criminals and outlaws, they give them freedom, and in exchange, they have to fight against Gallia." He said.

"Well, that sure sounds pretty bad." I said.

"What? Are you scared already darcsen?" Adrian said to me.

I wanted to punch him right where he was, but I wasn't going to lose my temper with this guy just with minimal insults.

"So, what do we do now?" He asked to Richard.

Richard pulled a cigarette pack from his jackets pocket and got one cigarette on his mouth.

"Don't worry, we can handle them…" He said while he lights it up with a matchstick.

"As long as we are together nothing is going to harm mother Gallia! You're all dismissed!" He said.

We got back to our camps end rested, it was almost night time, I tried to sleep but that thing he said kept bugging me, he said that as long as we are together nothing is going to harm mother Gallia, I think we won't stay together much long unless the attitudes of some commanders changes around here… I hope this happens…


	20. Chapter 19: Treason!

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 19: Treason!

After the battle to save the War House, Richard told us the Empire had boost their military power just like Gallia, but in the place of true citizens who want to protect their country and families, they searched for criminals, thieves and murderers. We don't know when another of those bandit groups might strike again, but for now we are safe.

In the next morning I was helping Zanna repairing one of our tanks when Richard approached the camp…

"Hey, How are your warpack today?" He asked.

"Well, we did had some injured man, but nothing serious. What about the others?" I said.

"They're all okay, don't worry. It sure was a miracle for us all to have survived yesterday, if it wasn't for Raphael we probably wouldn't have survived that."

"I guess you're right."

"But enough about that, I'm here because I have good news!"

"What is it?"

"We might have a clue of where Clementia Forster might be, if you would like to know, I can tell you."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah, but the source we acquired this information from it's not trustable so I'm not let you go alone out there…"

He finished the conversation with that and handed me a map with the location where Clementia Forster supposedly is. I know that Richard said he was going to help me by providing me with help from other warpacks, but with these two it is going to be a big problem. In one side there are the Colossal Amazons, they hate all kinds of man, and that's about eighty percent of our whole warpack, and in the other side there was the Heaven Arms, and they hate darcsens, and that's, well, the name of the warpack already say it so… The important thing now it's to watch over Adrian and Bianca, otherwise, things could get out of control.

According to the map that Richard gave me the location of Clementia Forster was in the middle of a group of mountains, the terrain was going to be difficult to travel so we already knew that at some point we were going to left the tanks behind.

In the middle of the way we were stopped by a dense pine forest and a heavy fog that surrounds it.

"That's just great!" I said in a sarcastic tone.

"What do we do now, darcsen?" Adrian said, with the feeling of indifference in his eyes.

"I have a name you know?" I said back to him.

"Whatever!" He said, he then turned his head to the other side and crossed his arms.

I turned my head to the other side and saw Bianca doing the same as him. I lowered my head, looking at the ground with both of my hands at my waist just shaking my head from one side to another.

"*Sigh* This mission it's going to be a pain in the…" I stopped and reflected for some minutes.

"Okay you two! Listen to me!" I said to them both.

"I'm going to send in Nazir and the Ghost Soldiers to make a recon of the area and find us a safe way to follow."

"Hunf!" Adrian grumped.

"What now?" I asked.

"Do you really think they can handle it? The forest might be full of bandits and you think that a small group of darcsen soldiers will pass unnoticed?"

"Hey! Didn't your mother never taught you that is wrong to talk behind people's backs?" A voice said.

When we looked up there was Nazir, with his arms crossed he was on a high branch in one of the pine trees of the forest's borders.

"So, do you think you can handle it?" I asked him.

"Roger that! Ghost Soldiers! Let's move!" He said.

"Roger!" An amount of different voices answered.

Nazir moved, making acrobatics to go from one branch to another. Right after he left to the center of the forest the Ghost Soldiers showed themselves, they were in the pine trees that were around were Nazir was, all of them with their faces covered by their hoods, they followed their commander in the same way.

I looked over to Adrian and he was just amazed by the Ghost Soldiers stealth abilities, he was with his eyes and mouth open wide.

"Hey! Better close your mouth, you don't want any insects getting inside of it, right?" I said to him.

He heard me but pretended that he didn't care again. After half an hour Nazir and the Ghost Soldiers came back…

"So, how is our situation?" I asked him.

"I'm not going to lie to you Neroh, it's bad, pretty bad.' He answered.

"How bad?"

"Well, the forest is crowded with bandits, they have camps everywhere, there are also traps and wild animals too, like wolfs and bears."

"What kind of traps?"

"Trip wires, connected by the trees and some small bushes, they are more numerous near their camps."

"Now what do we do?" Bianca asked.

We stayed quiet for some seconds, trying to figure it out how to get passed the bandits without been noticed…

"That's it!" I said.

"What?" Nazir asked.

"All we have to do is to use a code to get passed the forest!"

"Hun?" Adrian said, he looked confused.

"Nazir, you and your squad are going to guide us through the forest! You will watch from above as we proceed, if we get to close to a trip wire or a camp you'll alert us!" I said.

"But how?" Nazir asked.

"Simple! The Gallian White Woodpecker!"

"What are you two talking about?" Adrian asked.

"Oh! I get it!" Nazir said.

"But, how is the code going to work?" Nazir asked.

"When we are moving, you'll alert us like this: One knock two times will mean trip wire, those we can disable ourselves, and two knocks two times means a camp, than we will stop and change directions, if it is okay to proceed you'll knock three times, and if it's not, you'll knock three times two times, got that?" I explained to him.

"Okay, I got it! I'll go and inform the Ghost Soldiers the same, I'll wait for your orders!" He said.

"Roger that!" I answered.

Nazir moved to his squad to explain the situation.

"So, can you tell us what the hell were you two talking about?" Adrian said.

"What? You didn't get it?" I asked him.

"Of course I didn't! Any normal person wouldn't get it either!" He shouted.

"*sigh* Okay, I'll try to explain again, Nazir and his squad are going to guide us through the forest from above, whenever we get close to a trip wire or a bandits camp they will warn us by knocking at the woods, it will work like this: One knock, pause, one knock means that there is a trip wire in front of us, two knocks, pause, two knocks means that there is a camp. Whenever we turn to change directions they will warn us if it is a clean way to go by knocking three times, if it's not, they will knock three time, pause, three times, go it?" I explained to him.

"That's why you said woodpecker?" Bianca asked.

"yeah, something like that." I said.

I looked to Nazir and saw him making a signal, telling me that they were ready, I started to walk towards them when Adrian said:

"And do you think I will freely follow the lead of a group of darcsens?"

I took a deep breath and turned around…

"Look pal, if you don't want to thrust us, it's fine! Just go in there by yourself and follow your own instincts or your spiral heavenly goddess that you believe in or whatever…" I said.

I turned, but even before I could give a step I felt something cold next to my neck, it was Adrian with his saber next to my throat, and once again, the tension goes high between the warpacks as both sides aim their weapons at each other. I raised my hand slowly as a signal that they should hold their fire.

"Listen carefully now, darcsen, you may disrespect us, but don't even think about making fun of our religious ways, the next time you do so, I'll kill you were you stand!" Adrian said.

I turned my head to the side so that I could see him.

"Are you done?" I asked.

After that I continued to walk towards Nazir and his squad, eventually we got our way through the forest followed by Adrian and Bianca, we did make across but it cost us time, Nazir wasn't kidding when he said that there was traps everywhere…

After some time we made to the mountains, the tanks could not be stealth enough to cross the forest so the where left behind even before we reached the mountains, the bad thing is that we won't have mortar support from such a distance. Well, guess it's time to climb up! The terrain was not making easy for us to get to the location marked in the map, and the clime wasn't helping either, a strong blizzard strike as we tried to get across the edges of cliffs and the rocky terrain covered by meters and meters of snow.

When we got there I already felt that something was wrong, there was nothing there, not even a small research facility or a tent, nothing! It was just a circular closed space that had and open way and some caves.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Nazir asked me.

"I think so, let me check on that map again." I said.

While we were checking on the map to see what was going on around here Zig shouted:

"Get down! Sniper!"

At the same moment everyone got down in an incredible speed, for a fraction of a second the sniper didn't hit me in the head. We responded by firing back at the direction were we fought the sniper was.

"_Did we got him?"_ I whispered to Nazir.

The silence took the place and before we knew we were surrounded by bandits from all the sides, from the upper parts of the mountain ahead of us to the sides and the open entrance which we came from.

"Take cover!" I shouted.

The silence was gone and in place there was the sound of the machine guns and rifles firing at us, hell took place that time, I did attempt to take back the open entrance with some of my soldiers but before I could even do anything we heard a sound of explosion coming from the upper part of the mountain, and an avalanche breaks loose.

"Quick! Into the caves!" I ordered.

The warpacks split up and we rushed for the various cave entrances that were behind us, many didn't made in time and were swallowed up by the snow, including some bandits.

"Neroh! Watch out!" Nanah said.

Before I now, I am waking up with a terrible headache, I tried to get up but the pain gets stronger.

"Wait Neroh! You should not get up, you got hit in the head by a falling rock, it's better if you don't use your strength!"

I turned to my left, it was Nanah.

"Nanah… what… happened? My… head…" I said while touching my head.

"Don't! It look really serious, I didn't know what to do so I patch it up to stop the bleeding, but I don't know if just that will do…" Nanah said. I looked at her and her eyes showed me that she was really worried about me.

"How much time… was I out for?"

"At least an hour since we got stuck here."

I looked to my right and saw that the entrance of the cave was closed by a ridiculous amount of snow. In the state that I was I couldn't move the snow, and Nanah doesn't have enough strength to do it either.

"What do we do now Neroh?" She asked me.

"Let's try to… hug! Find another way…" I said while trying to get up by myself.

"Don't! Neroh, why are you so stubborn?" She looked angry.

"He he… Sorry…"

"Here, let me help you." She helped giving me support from her arm.

We started walking deep into the tunnel of the cave and to see if there was a way out, I hope it does, because things are looking really bad for us now…


	21. Chapter 20: Enmities

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 20: Enmities

We got to the location were Clementia Forster supposedly was, but instead of finding he we were welcomed by a rain of bullets from hostile troops, we tried to ran away but we were cornered and we ended up entering the caves that were near us. An avalanche broke out and now we are separated, me and Nanah are stuck here in this cave, and it looks like there is now way out, that's why we continued to walk further in the tunnel of the cave, tom see if it leads to the outside…

We continued searching for an exit at the end of the other cave, but when we got there, we found out that there was no exit, we were stuck in here. We walked back to the entrance of the cave that was blocked by the snow.

"We're stuck…" Nanah said, with a disheartened voice.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine, we just have to wait for a rescue team to come." I set next to her.

She looked at me and asked:

"How do you know that there is a rescue team coming?"

"I said to Richard that we would keep contact with him, with an interval of one hour, if in the next thirty minutes we don't contact him he'll send a rescue team for us…"

"I see… So, I guess we will have to wait here for some time hun?"

"Yeah… Hey, I got an idea! Why don't we get to know more about each other" I asked her.

"More? Like what?" She asked, she got close to me.

"Well… Zanna did said that you helped her make the uniforms, and they seem pretty resistant, did you had any experience doing sewing before?"

"Yep! When I was little my dad worked at the mines to support our family, unfortunately what he was paid for was not enough, so my mom had this idea of sewing the workers cloths that were always torn so we could earn some extra money, and with time I learned with her."

"Well, I guess you're really good at this hun?"

"Yeah, I think that when this war is over, I'm going to open a clothing store."

"That's sounds like a nice plan!"

"I know, right? Even though I'm better at making dresses than other types of cloths… So, what about you?"

"Me? Well, I guess I could be a music teacher."

"Really? I though you would say that you were going to be a military engineer, you know, because of your father…"

"Well, don't get me wrong, my dad was really great and I would have loved to follow his steps, but I always had a talent when it comes to music."

"I guess that's true, you're really good playing the guitar."

"Yes, my dad always said that I got that from my mom's side."

"She must have been a good mother…"

"Yeah, she must have…"

"Hmm…?" Nanah looked at me confused.

"Oh! I never told you, didn't I?"

"What happened?" She seemed curious.

"Our father told me that a week later after that she had given birth to Zanna she was captured by the Empire and was never seen again…"

"I'm so sorry…" Nanah looked terribly sad.

"But don't worry, he always remembered us of how much she loved us, especially in Zanna's case, because she really didn't our mother, she was always crying, but our father always told stories of our mother to her, and with the time, she stopped been so sad."

"What about you Neroh? Do you remember her?" Nanah asked.

I looked at her and she looked away…

"I'm sorry… I shouldn't have asked about it."

"No problem at all, even though I was older than Zanna I really don't remember much, only that she was a kind person…"

We stood quite for some seconds. I noticed that Nanah was freezing when started to shake while she was hugging my arm, I pulled a blanket out of my backpack and putted around us.

"We better take some rest now, it won't be long before rescue appears." I said to Nanah.

"Okay." She answered and afterwards she landed her head on my chest and I put my arm around her shoulders, we approached each other very close and slept. A few minutes later and we heard the sound of shovels hitting the snow that covered the cave entrances, in a few more seconds and the entrance was clear, and to welcome us out of that hell hole was Richard himself…

"I'm glad to see that you are not hurt." He said to me.

"And I'm glad to see that you came to help us." I answered.

I looked to my right and saw a line of bodies on the floor, all of them were soldiers from the brotherhood.

"How many?" I asked Richard.

"Seven, but we are still looking for the rest of all three warpacks."

While I was talking to him I saw that Nazir and the others had escaped as well, as they come out of the other cave systems, and Adrian and Bianca as well.

"Let me help you, give me a shovel."

"Are you sure? Are you not injuried?" Richard asked me.

"I'm fine! Just give me a shovel, if there are any survivors there we need to find them quickly before they ran out of air."

We continued digging the region were the avalanche had strike, and in the end we found a total of sixteen bodies, three from Heaven arms, three from Colossal amazons and ten from us, it was day of sorrow…

"Well, at least the day wasn't totally lost, the enemy took great part of the trash with the avalanche my friends!" Adrian said, while he laughed with the members of his own warpack.

I felt the blood going to my head when he said that. I clenched my fist and punched him, he didn't even had time to dodge it. He hit the floor on his back and before he could get up I pointed my pistol at his face.

"Don't play with the deaths of our comrades spiral priest…" That was all I said.

I got my pistol back to in the colt and looked at him, he's face was palled, I think he got the massage, he got up afterwards to defend himself but it didn't had time to do it. We heard the sound of cannons in the distance, one of Richard's soldiers came running to him with the radio on his back…

"Sir! Incoming transmission from our troops that are at the foot of the mountais!"

He handled over the radio phone to Richard.

"Here's commander, what's your situation?" Richard said at the radio.

"We're been under heavy attack by imperial squads sir!" The soldier answered back.

"How many?"

"At least three sir! We're getting support from the tanks of the Darcsen Brotherhood, but without more troops, we'll be destroyed here!"

"_Could it be that this was the Empire's plan all along?_" I thought to myself.

"Hold on! We're going right now!" Richard said to the radio.

He then turned to me and Adrian.

"Sorry boys, you'll have to continue you're little fight later, now we need to get down there quickly!"

"Okay!" I said it.

"Roger that!" Adrian said.

"But Neroh, are you sure you can fight, I mean, the injury on your head…" Nanah said.

"Don't worry, I'm better now, besides, I can't just sit here and do nothing while our comrades are been attack right?" I said to her.

She looked back at me and answered with a smile:

"Right!"

I looked around and saw the others, they were all prepared to go.

"Is everyone ready?" I shouted.

"Yes sir!" They all shouted back.

"Then let's move!" I shouted.

And we rushed to get down the mountain, I hope we get there before it's to late…


	22. Chapter 21: Bandits in the way

Chronicles of the darcsen brotherhood

Chapter 21: Bandits in the way

While we were running through the forest to get to Richard's troops we looked around and saw that there were many bandit corpses around, that showed us how good of a commander Richard could be, the forces that we had to sneak to pass the forest was completely destroyed.

When we got there some of Richard's troops were down, and they needed help immediately. They were been attacked by mounted bandits, and in the distance some mortar troops. They are located at the border of the forest, with heavy machine guns in sand bags at the front and the tanks at the back.

"Snipers, Get up on the tanks! The rest get cover behind them and wait until the mortar strikes happens, than get a sight and shoot! Remember it has to be fast, one shot, one kill! We don't have time to lose!" I ordered.

"Roger!" They answered.

We put ourselves in position and waited for the mortar strike, one of them was so close to one of our tanks that it almost lifted it, but since we don't know the coordinates of their mortars we can't shoot back.

"How are we supposed to hold out like this?" Nazir asked me.

"Just hold on for some time, I have an idea!" I said to him.

I got to where Richard was, dodging from the bullets that almost hit me.

"Richard, I have a plan! Let's try to get around them and see where their mortars teams are!" I said.

"And how do we do that?" Richard asked.

"Let's just use the tall grass!"

"But the tall grass doesn't go so far, after that we'll be in an open field!"

"Don't worry, when it comes to that point my Ghost Soldiers will cover our backs from the top of the trees, and we also will have two of them next to us in case any of the bandits come close for a hand to hand combat! We just need to know where their mortar teams are, after that we'll need to run back really fast, so prepare your legs for it!"

"Ok then, prepare your troops!"

In the middle of the gunfire I managed to organize the troops, we were ready, just waiting for the next mortar strike and will be on our way.

***BOOM* *BOOM* BOOM***

That was it! We made a run for it through the tall grass. When we came closer to the open field we ran directly to where some bandit infantry was, it looked like they were guarding that way, like if there was something important there. When we got out of the tall grass two of them that were using rifles immediately aimed to us, I pulled my pistol of my coat and shoot both of them, just like I said before, one shot, one kill. The other six that were armed with knives and axes came running, Richard passed by me directly to them, followed by two of our Ghost soldiers. He waited for one of them to wave his axe that missed completely because he was not close enough to hit him and he pulled a small knife that was hidden in his sleeve and slashed his throat with it, the other one came with a knife and tried to give a quick jab but failed miserably when Richard dodged by bending his body a little backwards, than he pulled his arm that was still extended in his direction and pulled him closer, making him lose his balance and stabbed him in his stomach with his small knife that he had on his sleeve, the other four came running to him but the two Ghost Soldiers that were with us were faster and they threw their daggers before they could get close to Richard, they didn't even had a chance.

"Thanks!" Richard said to the Ghost Soldiers.

They said nothing, they just nodded their heads in response.

We continued to walk forward but I looked to my side and saw that a mounted bandit was coming for me with a saber on his hand, I pulled my pistol to shoot him but it jammed. He was getting closer, I pulled my knife and hopped for the best when suddenly the bandit fall from his horse to the ground, when I looked closer I saw an arrow under his arm, I turned to my left and saw in the top of the trees Nazir with his bow on one hand and giving me a thumbs up with the other. I thanked him with the same sign and proceed ahead with the others.

Just as we passed the hill we could see them, behind the first line of foot soldiers, I shouted the coordinates in the radio back to our tanks and they used their mortars to finish them up. It worked.

Now the bandits are retreating and the way is clear to go back to safety.

"Well, now we can go back!" I said.

"But Neroh, what if they ambush us again?" Zig asked me.

"Well… I guess we can do it like this…" I said.

I instructed the tank drivers to make two lines, forming eight tanks in each side with all the warpacks tanks, and that they should have a space between them, like a corridor. The space in the middle will be for the trucks that will take our injured soldiers and the rest would walk by the tanks, using them as cover. If an ambush happens we'll be prepared.

We made our way safely back to the War House and Frederic was there in the gates to welcome us back.

"My friends! I'm so glad you're all okay!" He said.

Surprisingly, he managed to get both me and Richard in a huge bear hug, almost kill us without air again, it was really a comical scene, everyone around laugh it, even the injured ones. When he came to give a hug at Bianca, she grabbed him by the arm and tossed him to the ground.

"Always…with a strong… arm, Bianca!" Frederic said while trying not to suffocate in the dirt.

Everybody laugh.

"Hey Bianca, easy now, we still need this guy." Richard said.

She looked at him and turned her head back to the side with her nose up making a **"HUNF" **sound, ignoring him.

Andrea and Raphael came with all the soldiers of their warpacks to help the injured, they also provided doctors from their warpacks.

Later that night we had a duty to our fallen soldiers, we had to prepare their burials. We didn't have a space inside the Warpack so we got outside and made a special location to be a hero's cemetery, a special place for them to rest and to be remembered. When we buried the last one it was already night time.

"Now they can rest looking at the beautiful starry sky…" Nazir said.

Many cried that night, cried for the friends that they made and will never see again, cried for the heroes that had fight by their side for such a short time, they cried…

When we got back inside I saw Adrian on the upper part of the gates, he looked at me with indifference again. I went to see Richard and found him in the War House's tavern, he and Frederic were drinking like if there was no tomorrow.

"Hey Richard, can we talk for a sec?" I asked him.

"Sure thing friend! Just let me drink some more and I'll be on my way!" He answered.

I had to actually drag him out to talk to him.

"So… what did you wanted to talk about?" Ricahrd asked.

At this point Richard was so drunk he started to make goofy faces to me, he was out of his mind.

"Tell me, are you with this guys for how long now?" I asked him.

"Well, for a very long my friend!" He said, still making faces.

"So tell me, what are their backgrounds?"

For a moment he sobered up, just as if all that alcohol vanished from his system.

"You know that it's not a good thing to snoop around peoples past?" He asked.

"I know, I just want to know them better…" I answered.

He looked at me and saw that I was serious, he took a deep breath, let it out and looked at the skies, afterwards he throws himself at the ground and said.

"Well my friend, make yourself comfortable because it's going to be a long night…"


	23. Chapter 22: The five memories

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 22: The five memories

"So, what do you want to know about?" Richard asked me.

"Well, what about Adrian, what's his past like?" I asked him.

"Adrian you say? Okay, here is what he told me. Adrian was ten years old when this happened, he said that he was having a trip to the country side with his family when suddenly the car that was in front of theirs stopped, he's father didn't understand what was going on, he honked to the car on the front so the driver could keep moving, but from the car came out a total number of five people, all darcsens. He's father came out of the car and started to ask what was going on, in the place of an answer he was shot in the chest three times, his mother tried to save him by running in the woods and, trying to get away from the man that took her husband's life, she didn't make so far as she was shot on the leg by one of those man. She said to Adrian to hide, that all would be okay, when the man came to her they asked were was their money, she said they had no money, when he heard that, he shot her in the head whit Adrain watching all of this hiding in the bushes, after the man were gone he ran away until he found a small village. He approached the Valkirur temple and cried while he was sitting at the steps of the entrance, a priest approached him and herd what happened, he than adopted him and raised him while he learned the ways of the Valkyrur. I mean, don't get me wrong, it wasn't the Valkyrur teachings that made him what he is today."

"I never said it was, it was probably the attack that created that anger of him towards darcsens."

"Yeah, probably that."

"Who's next?" I asked him.

"I guess I'll talk about Andrea, this happened when she was fifteen. She had a father that was a respectable man in both social and military life, he only had one problem, he was too righteous, so righteous that one day he had discovered a scheme made by some army commanders to sell weapons to the empire, he had give them twenty four hours to turn themselves in to the army before he said anything, but he didn't had so much time. In the other morning he was going to the base to turn those commanders in to the army authorities, he entered his car and in the middle of the way he car exploded, when Andrea's family received the news they knew that there was something wrong about it, after all, her father had told them about the scheme. When she completed eighteen she joined the army and discovered who were the people responsible for her father's death, after an investigation she found out that her father's car exploded because of a clock bomb planted underneath it, they were turned to the authorities and were locked away for a long, long time."

"And why didn't she stay there?" I asked him.

"Because the army was a place that was too much corrupted to be a place of justice, that's what she said." Richard answered.

"And so she met you?"

"Yep! And joined us the second she knew what we were doing."

"Joined us? Does that mean that you were with the others already?"

"Yeah, with Frederic and Bianca."

"Then tell me about Frederic."

"Frederic was just a farmer back at the Empire, he had lots of friends and a big family, he was the leader of a prosperous village, until the day that the imperial army came to recruit some of the kids that were turning sixteen. Frederic refused to give them up to the Empire, they were people of his village and it was his duty to protect them. As a response to Frederic's actions the imperials arrested him and burned his house down with his family inside, they made him watch as he heard them scream in pain."

"Wha-?!" I couldn't believe in what he just said.

"He had two girls, one of ten years old and the other had thirteen, he also had a boy that was eight years old, a beautiful wife that had long dark hair and was about twenty three years old."

He went quite for some time.

"He had everything that he ever dreamed of, a big beautiful family and a good job. Neroh, Frederic suffered more than any of us here, he probably still have nightmares about that day." He said while looking at the window of the tavern, in the inside Frederic was fighting with other soldiers, he laughed as if that story that Richard told me has never happened.

"After that he decided to get out of the Empire's territory and get here to Gallia with all his village, most of the soldiers you see here are all friends that know Frederic from a long time ago. Neroh, I know that Frederic seems like a big clown sometimes, but he is a truly reliable comrade on the battlefield, because the last thing he wants is to lose his friends, he already lost his family, at least he will make anything he can to protect those he care so much about." Richard said.

I never imagined that Frederic had through all of this, or maybe I just didn't noticed before, he really gets happy when he sees that we came back from a mission unharmed.

"And now I guess its Bianca's turn. Bianca came from a very rich family, she was a lady of manners and even though she was the tallest of all the other people in her family she was a really gentle person, at the time I think you wouldn't even believe that she could hurt a fly. Her father came to her one day and said that there was a man there to see her, she saw the man and immediately fell in love with him, as the days passed she came closer and closer to the man, she saw him as a true gentleman and a really romantic person. After two years dating him they decided to get married, they got back to her mansion and had their honey moon. In the next morning she woke up and he was not there, he looked everywhere for him but couldn't find him, so she decided to ask her parents if they knew where he was, but she did think it was really strange that they were still sleeping at that time of the day. She knocked on the door to their room but no one answered, she opened the door slightly and saw something she wished she never saw, her parents were in bed, brutally murdered, stains of blood on the walls, pillows and the sheets, their faces were so smashed up that she couldn't even tell if they were her parents, in the side of the bed was a piece of heavy wood that was covered in blood and in the wall to her right was the family safe, it was completely empty, there was nothing left, and the man that ruined her life was gone forever, she was in shook. After she attended her parents funeral she made a promise, that she would not going to submit herself to any other man, that she was going to be strong and independent and that she would help other women that were suffering just like her. I must say though, it was hard to convince her to join us." Richard said.

"But how did you found out about her past, I mean, it doesn't seem she likes you."

"One of the girls in my warpack talked to her girls, it's one of their rules, don't talk to man…"

"Well, I guess there is only one more to go…" I said.

"Me? Well, my story isn't really that important, but if you say so. I was born in the Empire, but unlikely the others I never met my parents, the only family I had were the kids on the street that I grew up with, and the only way for me to survive in those conditions were to steal. Soon, I was becoming a legend on the streets because of my abilities, when I was seventeen I joined a gang of bandits that travelled from one town to another, robbing stores and raiding trains and cars on the country roads. It really wasn't my style since I usually robbed with stealth methods, but at the time I couldn't think of anything else but money, and my greed kept growing and growing. One day we passed through a small village that was in our way to the next train raid we were planning, and the gang decided to get some money from there, one of the families didn't had any money to give, and I did something that I'll regret from the rest of my life…

**Flashback **

A family is crouched scared in one corner of their own house as bandits search the place for valuable items, but they found nothing.

"_Boss, there is nothing here, we already checked the place twice!_" One of the bandits said to their boss.

"_What?! There is no way, c'mon, keep looking!_" The boss said and the bandit began to search again.

The boss of the bandits looked to the family that was shaking in fear, he came close to the mother of the family and asked:

"_C'mon now, be a good girl and tell me where is the money?_"

"_Please! We don't have any money! Please! Believe me!_" She begged.

The man stands up and gets crazy with the woman's answer, he starts to break all the furniture in the house, and while this goes on, a young man is looking at all this from the front door of the house.

"_Well, since you don't have any money, you'll have to pay with something else._" The boss said.

He pulled one of the kids that were in the mother's arms and drags him next to Richard, the father and the mother tried to do something, but they were both stopped by two of the bandits that were next to the boss, the family now watches what is going to happen to the little boy.

"_Richard! Kill him!_" The boss said.

The family starts to cry and the older sister start to shout to him to stop.

"_Boss?_" Richard asked.

"_What? Are you death? I said kill him!_" He shouted.

"_But boss, he's just a kid._"

"_I don't care if he's just a kid, the family doesn't have any money, so they'll have to pay in some other way, now kill him!_"

Richard putted the butt of the machine gun he head on his shoulder and aimed for the head of the kid but he hesitated to shoot, he started to sweat and his hands were shaking. His boss took out his pistol and said:

"_I tell you something Richard, if you don't kill him in the next five seconds, I'll kill you!_"

Richard was still hesitating, he looked at the poor kid as he starts to cry and peeing himself.

"_One, two…_" The boss started the countdown.

Richard was more afraid than ever, he was been watched by his criminal mates that were laughing at the matter that the kid just peed himself all over the floor and he was also been watched by the family that was crying in despair, he looked at the little girl that was I her mother's arms that was still saying:

"_Please! Don't do it!_"

"_Three…_" The boss is still counting.

"_C'mon Richard! Shoot already!_" The other bandits were cheering for him to shoot.

"_Four… *click*_" A strange sound was heard, his boss was ready to fire.

Richard didn't know what to do, he closed his eyes and let his body do what he wanted. A shot was heard, And Richard though he was dead, he opened his eyes and checked on himself but there was no bullet holes. He looked at the ground and saw the little boy with a hole in his head and an unstoppable flowing of blood, he dropped on his knees and started to ask himself, why did he do that.

The boss approached him and said:

"_Good job boy, in this world you must be strong, because only the strong will survive._"

The boss and the rest of the group get out of the house laughing of the family's pain, and Richard was still there, in his knees, looking at the family crying for the boy that died by his own bullet. And he hears the boy's sister say the words that haunt him even to this day:

"_You murderer!_"

**End of Flashback**

"And I'm still paying for this sin even after so many years." Richard said.

I looked at him, still not believing that he would do such a thing.

"Bu- but you had no choice, if you didn't shoot you would have died!" I said to him.

"I did had a choice, I could have chose to kill myself before I shot that poor boy."

"Richard…" I said, and a minute of silence appeared.

"Well, that doesn't really matter, after this war is over I'm going to turn myself in to the Gallian police…"

"What?! But you didn't even committed that crime here, it was in the Empire's territory!" I said, trying to convince him to change his mind.

"Don't even try Neroh, I decided this even before the war started, I'm just waiting for the war to end." He said.

"But what about your soldiers? Do they know that?"

"They do, some of them are going to do the same as me."

"_**The same as him…? Oh yeah! That's right! His warpack is formed by ex-convicts…**_" I thought to myself.

"But what about Bianca, didn't you said you love her?" I asked Richard.

"That's right, I do love her, she's strong and independent, things that I never managed to be before… That happened…" He went quite for some seconds.

"Well, I guess that was all of them, except for Raphael, since he got here he got here he didn't said much, and neither his soldiers." Richard said.

"Hey! Careful there commander, you're going to break the table again!" One of the soldiers inside the tavern was talking.

"Ops! I better get that fat drunk to his bed, otherwise he's going to destroy the entire tavern this time." Richard said while he gets up and straightens hi hat.

"C'mon you drunken bastard!" Richard said while he helps to carry Frederic out of the tavern.

"Mommy? Is that you? *Hicup*" Frederic said.

"Shut up you drunken pig!" Richard said back.

I was still sitting on the ground while I watch this comical scene, but I still wonder how am I going to find out about Raphael's past… Well! I guess I'll find out in the morning, the night is beautiful but I am really tired now, I better get some sleep…


	24. Chapter 23: The dark flames

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 23: The dark flames

**Author's note: to the person that asked about the Darcsen Brotherhood bumping into Calamity Raven. I would love to add this event on the story, but unfortunately, I can't. The thing is that I'm more familiar to Valkyria Chronicles 1 and 2 stories, but not the third one. I wish I could add that to the story, but I can't, I'm very sorry.**

Its morning already, and we now march to the Barious Desert following the tip of travelers that passed by the War House. They talk about a strange girl with mystical powers, they say she was seen by the ruins of the desert, and without haste I prepared some soldiers and followed that tip, I suspected that might be some other experiment from Clementia Forster, and I wanted to investigate as fast as possible. If she was planning on creating other kinds of monsters we needed to stop her and we needed to do it right away.

Some more couple of days marching and we reached the Barious Desert, for some of us this was a place to be hated, after all, this place is where the famous "Darcsen Calamity" myth took place, and that is possibly what it is for me, without current historical documentation, I'll never accept that for the truth.

We prepared to set our camp near a mountain that would protect us from the sand storm that was coming when one of my soldiers came to me.

"Sir, there is a camp of the Militia just a few miles from here." He said.

"Do you know what squad it is?" I asked him.

"Apparently It's squad's seven and one's flags sir!" He answered.

"Welkin and Faldio?" I though.

"Alicia and Isara are here too?" Zanna asked me.

"Yeah… Maybe we should pay them a visit, they might know something about that strange girl." I said.

"That's not a bad idea." Nazir said.

We took one of the trucks and we went to were the Militia camp was. When we got there some of the Militia soldiers were gambling and others were sitting around campfires, we walked around the tents to find Welkin and the others but we had found no one. We were lucky to bump into Faldio, commander of the first Militia squad.

"Hey! If it isn't Neroh!" Faldio said.

"Long time no see, Faldio." I answered to him.

"And Zanna is also here, you're cuter than the first time we've met." Faldio said to Zanna

She giggles and gets blushed.

"Alright lady-killer, enough of that." I got in the way of the compliment.

"Tell me, do you know where Welkin is?" I asked him.

"I don't really know, let's talk to Alicia, maybe she knows where he is." He answered.

We followed him to where Squad Seven's tank was, and as always there was Isara, upgrading the tank.

"Isara!" Zanna shouted and ran to her giving her a hug.

"Zanna!" Isara answered.

"Yo! Long time no see, Isara." I said to her

"Neroh! Long time no see! It's so good to see you two again. What about the others?" Isara said.

"They're all okay, they've come with us but they stayed at the camp with the warpack." I said to her.

"Oh, that's right! I've heard a lot from you guys since then."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

"Well, while you chat I'll go look for Alicia." Faldio said.

"Okay then." I answered.

Faldio walks away.

"Is that… the Edelweiss?" Zanna asked.

"Yes, I've been working on him for some time to make it more resistance and fast." Isara answered.

"Eeeeh! Incredible, you could help us sometime with our tanks!"

"You got tanks to?"

"Yes, but they are all raided from the Empire, it really is a problem when it comes to repair them or upgrade them, since the design is a little different from the gallian ones."

"_Those two tank fanatics…_" I thought to myself.

"Oh yeah! Isara, do you know where your brother is?" I asked her.

"Not really, but if I know him, he must be around doing sketches of the animals of this area." She answered.

"Okay. And have you heard anything about a strange girl in the ruins?"

"No, why?"

"Nothing, it's just that there is something suspicious about this rumor… I guess I'll look for Faldio and see if he found Alicia."

"Okay then."

"Hey Isara! Can you give me some tips on how to repair the tanks?" Zanna said.

I went to find Faldio around the camp, but I was stopped by a horrible note played by an unturned guitar. I wolked to where the sound was coming from and found a small group of soldiers from squad number one.

"Let it go man, there is no way you're going to get the notes right." One of them said to the soldier that was playing the guitar.

"It's not me, the guitar is the problem!" He answered.

I walked up to them and asked:

"Can I take a look?"

They gave me a suspicious look, probably because I'm darcsen.

"S-sure!" One of them handled me the guitar.

I set the tunes right and started testing the guitar, I've gone too far away again and played a whole song to test it, when I realize everyone around was applauding, and I just scratched the back of my head while my face goes red with embarrassment.

"Hey there! Not bad at all!" Faldio was there applauding as well, with Alicia by his side.

"I'm sorry, I think I got a little carried away…" I said.

"Not at all, you're very good at it!" Faldio said.

"He he! Thanks! And it's nice to see you again Alicia!" I said.

"Nice to see you too, Neroh!" She said.

At that moment I could hear the soldiers of the first squad whispering to each other.

"_What?! She said Neroh?_"

"_Does she means that Neroh?! The one that stopped the sneak invasion from the north?_"

"_So he's the one that captured that Empire's cruiser? Amazing!_"

I never thought we we're so famous like this, I mean, I know people at the War House said things like that, but even the Militia knows it.

"By the way, have you found Welkin?" I asked Alicia and Faldio.

"Follow me." Alicia said.

While we were walking, Alicia asked:

"Hey, how is Zanna and Nanah, are they doing okay?"

"They're fine, Zanna came with me here and is with Isara, but Nanah stayed at the warpack camp." I said.

"It seems that you became a great commander, I've heard that you're soldiers would follow you even in certain death."

"That might be true, but I don't like to call them my soldiers."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't like to put a line between us, I think what I want to say is that I see them as my companions more than subordinates."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, looking out for your soldiers is another quality that a good commander must always have, this only shows that you're in the right way."

"Thanks Alicia."

"No problem, there he is." She pointed at Welkin, who was drawing some beetles at his sketchbook.

"Thanks." I said to her.

"I'll go see Zanna, it's a long time since we didn't see each other."

"I'm sure she will be more than happy to see you too." I said to her while I walked away, in Welkin's direction.

He didn't even noticed me even though I was just a few just a steps away from him. I approached him and put my finger at the back of his head.

"Stop, you move I'll shoot!" I said to him.

He slowly put his hands in the air.

"He he. You still the same airhead since the last time we've met, Welkin."

"That voice, could it be…?" Welkin turned around and saw me.

"Yo!" I said to him.

"Neroh! Long time no see!" He said, while we shake hands.

"So, still attracted to nature hun?" I asked him.

"Well, it's not really something I can avoid, I just can't ignore a species I never saw before, I just need to draw it!" He said as he continues to draw the beetles.

"I get it, I get it. Nature is your thing. By the way, do you know anything about a strange girl around the ruins?" I said.

"No, not really." Welkin answered.

Apparently nobody have…

"I think this might be another of Clementia Forster's experiments, but we are not sure…" I said.

"Why do you say that?"

"We went on a mission some days ago following the tip of an unknown source, it told us that she was on a research facility at the mountains, but when we got there, we were ambushed by bandits, we lost a lot of our companions."

"I see…"

Silence took place for some seconds.

"I guess… I'm not strong enough…" I said.

"Hun?" Welkin said.

"I promised that I would fight to protect them, but not even that I did right…"

"Neroh…"

"That's why I'm going to get stronger now, I'll try my best to stop Forster and all of her monstrous experiments!"

"That's the way!" Welkin said while smiling to me.

After a long day Zanna and I got back to the camp, in the next morning we set small parties with at least six soldiers and started to search for the girl in the ruins, but some of us felt uncomfortable with the past of this ruins, where many are in doubt with what really happened here years ago.

"Hey Neroh! We've found something!" Mannar said.

When I came to their party there were footprints on the sand, they looked recent, especially since this area is known for the sandstorms that occurs one after the other.

"Did you saw anyone?" I asked Mannar.

"No, the others are looking around, but they didn't found anything yet." He answered.

"Okay, continue searching and inform me if you find anything else." I said.

We continued searching until the radio started to receive an incoming transmission.

"Sir! We need assistance right away! I repeat! We need assistance right away!" The soldier was shouting.

"Where are you?" I asked him.

"We're in the northwest part away from the ruins! Please hurry!" The transmission ended there.

"Everyone! Head northwest from the ruins immediately! Our man need assistance! Quickly!" I transmitted into the radio to the rest of the soldiers.

Mannar and I rushed to their aid, but I was curious, they said that they were in danger but I didn't heard any shooting what was attacking them? When we reached their location they were unconscious on the ground, they had deep cuts on them.

"Hurry, bring the healing ragnite packs!" Mannar said, as he helped them to recuperate.

One of them started to cough blood. I helped him lifting him up.

"What happened? Who attacked you?" I asked him.

"The witch… in blue flames… *cough*" He said.

"What?" I asked.

"Better not to make him talk more Neroh, he needs to rest." Mannar said.

"Alright…" I said.

Mannar and the others started to patch them up while I started thinking. What happened to them? What he meant by "Witch covered in blue flames"? Only one thing came to my mind, a Valkyria. I always thought that Valkyrias were just fairytale characters, but if it's true that a Valkyria attacked here and now, we're going to have a serious problem at our hands.

There were footprints in the sand, it looked like there were two of them.

"Mannar! Take care of them, I'll go after them!" I said.

"Okay! Just be careful Neroh, whatever it was that attacked this man was really strong." He said.

I followed the footprints on the sand, when suddenly I've heard an incoming transmission at my radio.

"Help! We need help over here! A witch is attacking us! With her is… Prince Maximilian! I repeat she's accompanying Prince Maximilian!" The soldier said.

"What?!" I said.

What would Maximilian be doing here? That means that… the witch… could it be? But I didn't had time to keep thinking, I need to get to those man fast!

"Tell me what you're position is!" I said.

"We're at- AAAAAAHHHHHH!" That's the end of the transmission.

I followed the footprints as fast as I could to get there and help them. When I reached them, there they were. Prince Maximilian Gaius Von Reginrave, and his bodyguard, the witch Selvaria Bles.

"Stop right there!" I shouted.

He turned around and looked at me.

"I have no time to deal with darcsen trash now, be gone!" He said

He turned around and continued walking.

"Stop! ***BANG***

I shot to hit his leg, but Selvaria was quicker and stopped the bullet with her sword, cutting it in half.

"Wha-?!" I was stunned by that.

How could she cut a bullet in to, and how could she be so fast, there is no was she could be human.

"Your highness, please let me take care of this trash." She said.

"Very well, do as you wish, just be quick about it." Maximilian said.

"Yes, your highness."

She came running to me with her blade ready to stab my heart.

"Well, I guess bullets won't work." I said as I threw away my pistol.

I pulled my knife and waited for a opening on her posture. When she came close enough I tried to stab her on the stomach, but she dodged by leaning back and thrusts her sword against me, I thought it was the end. In a fraction of a second her blade was hit by an arrow that came from the right, she jumps back and looks at her left, and in the top of a sand dune there was Nazir with his bow prepared with another arrow.

"Will I always need to babysit you Neroh?" He said.

"Give me a break, I was fine before you showed up!" I said back to him, with a small smile.

"Neroh?" Maximilian said.

"So, this is the vermin that took down my cruiser?" He said.

A moment of silence took place.

"Very well… Selvaria, annihilate all of these verms, if they stay alive they might cause trouble for us in the future." Maximilian said.

"As you wish, my highness." Selvaria said.

She prepared to charge me again.

"Nazir, don't let Maximilian escape! If we capture him this senseless war will end for sure!" I said to nazir.

"Got it!" He said.

He rushed to get to Maximilian as fast as he could.

"You shall not get hear the prince!" Selvaria said.

She ran to him and waved her sword trying to cut off Nazir's head, but Nazir was faster and with his acrobatic abilities manage to jump over her sword.

"You'll not escape!" Selvaria said.

She waved her sword back to her other side, in hopes that she would hit him from behind, but I blocked her with my knife, making possible that Nazir could escape and go after Maximilian.

"You trash, how dare you get in the way of the prince's objective!" Selvaria said with anger.

She starts to put pressure on her sword and the friction between her sword and my knife gets bigger. The knife and the sword started to give out sparks.

"The prince's objective? I couldn't care less for his objective! As long as innocent people suffer because of this nonsense war I'll fight and try to stop him and all costs!" I shouted at her.

"You little verm! ***CLANK***" She waves her sword so hard it makes me fly three meters away from where I was.

I hit a sand dune and passed through it. I try to get up but the arm with which I was holding the knife was broken.

"_No way! She broke my arm just by swinging her sword once?!_" I thought to myself.

"Prepare yourself darcsen!" Selvaria said.

She raised her sword and suddenly blue flames appeared around her. Her eyes became red and her hair was silver colored. That was the power of a Valkyria. When she was ready to give the final blow I closed my eyes. For a moment, I thought I was dead.

I opened my eyes slowly and right in front of me there was a girl that must be about twelve years old, she was wearing an overcoat with darcsen symbols all over it, and also some ancient runes that looked similar to the northern ones, these ones in the other hand were of a dark blue color, not like the other darcsen ones. Her hair was long and curly, almost touching the ground, looking at her hair color and her skin tone it was clear to me that she was a darcsen. In her hand there was a small dagger which it had the same runes as her overcoat and was also dark blue.

"What?" I said.

Selvaria jumped back.

"Damn! Who are you?" Selvaria said.

The girl said nothing, she kept herself in total silence and the expression in her face didn't change at all.

"Get out of my way!" Selvaria shouted at her.

"Sorry. I can't do that." The girl said, but she still didn't change her facial expression.

"Then you'll die with him!" Selvaria said.

She started to charge those flames again and she ran into the girl's direction.

"Watch out!" I shouted, but the girl simply didn't care, she didn't even tries to dodge Selvaria's attack.

She stood there while Selvaria was coming, when she wave her sword down on her the girl simply held the blade with one of her hands.

"Wha-?!" Selvaria was speechless.

I couldn't believe in my own eyes, how did she stop the blade with her bare hand?

"I'm sorry, but I must make this quick." The girl said.

After she said that flames covered her body, but these were different than the valkyrian ones, they were in an obscure tone of dark blue. Her hair became darker than a night with no moon and stars and her eyes became red just like Selvaria.

In the blink of an eye she stabs Selvaria in her stomach and she falls on the ground.

"What did you... do to me?" Selvaria asked.

"Don't worry, I avoided causing a lethal wound, I just stunned you." The girl said.

Selvaria passes out. I look at the girl and she came to me, she got close to me and for no reason I passed out as well. When I woke up I was being dragged by the collar of my uniform, I could see and hear, but I couldn't move my body or talk, it was a true agony.

"You're not ready yet…" I've heard someone's voice.

"You need to get stronger…" The person said while continuing to drag me by the collar.

Soon, the person puts my back against the wall, it was that girl that defeated Selvaria.

"Is it true that you wish to get stronger?" She asked.

I tried to nod my head a little in affirmation. She kneeled, her hand became covered by those dark blue flames I saw before. She touched my chest with her hand open, right were my heart is and said:

"If you truly want to become stronger you'll live, and you'll fight to live as well."

After she said that I saw the flames going inside my chest, and after that I felt my whole body burning, like as if I was inside a oven or something, the pain was making me faint…

"_Be stronger, and conquer this power…_" It was the last thing I heard she say before passing out again.

I woke up and opened my eyes slowly, I looked up and the sky was moving fast.

"Neroh!" Zanna said, she was right at my side.

"Where am i?" I asked her.

"You're in the back of truck, we're getting back to the Militia H.Q." She answered.

"Hey there, don't try to get up, you're in a bad shape my friend." Nazir said, he was on the other side.

"And Maximilian?" I asked him.

"Sorry, but he got away." He answered.

"Yeah, and the Militia was being attacked by the Empire! But we managed to help them!" Zanna said.

"So is everyone okay?" I asked.

"They're alright. But what about you?" Nanah said, she was at the end of the truck.

"Nanah? I'm fine, nothing but a scratch." I said letting out a little smile to her. I don't want her to be worried because of me.

She smiles back.

"By the way, what happened after I was gone? I came back for you and before I knew you were ten meters away from where you were fighting Selvaria." Nazir asked.

"Well- UHGN!" I was interrupted by a sudden pain, a pain that quickly heated up, like that last time.

"Neroh! Hold on! _Mannar! Come here, we need assit…_" I fainted again.

"_Do you want to have power?_" A strange voice asked.


	25. Chapter 24: A warrior is awaken!

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 24: A warrior is awaken!

"_Do you want to have power?_" A strange voice said.

Again, I couldn't move my body, and now I can't even open my eyes, it felt just as if I was floating on water, except I didn't felt could or wet.

"_Do you want to have power?_" The strange voice persisted.

"Yes!" I firmly answered.

"_Then, you'll have to fight for it…_"

The voice vanished and I woke up immediately to the sound of cannons being fired.

"Mortars! Get down!" Someone was screaming.

I was still lying and wasn't able to move my body, I could move my head though. I looked down at my body and saw that many dark marks have appeared in my entire body, it was the same runes that were in those girl's cloths.

"Hey! The commander is awake! What the…!" One of the soldiers of the warpack said, he was shocked when he saw those strange marks in my body.

"Neroh! We're under attack by bandi-!" Zanna appeared.

"What happened?!" Zanna asked the soldier.

"I don't know! When I came here he was already like this!" The soldiers said.

***BOOM* *BOOM***

The sound of explosion could be heard very close to the truck where I was.

"Kuhh…!" I was trying to talk, but I couldn't.

"Hey! Retreat to the hills, their tanks have passed our defenses!" Another soldier came and said to Zanna.

"Take Neroh with you, I'll got to Nazir and ask him to help with the injured.

"Yes ma'am!" The soldiers said.

They got up in the truck and carried me away, supporting my arms with their shoulders. I looked around and saw many injured soldiers one the way to the hills, we left the road and there was the Militia tanks and the tanks of our own. When we got close to the hills there was Welkin and Mannar with some troops behind sand bags.

"What happened to him?" Welkin asked as the soldiers passed with me by the sand bags.

"We don't know! Please sir! Take a look at him!" One of the soldiers asked Mannar.

"I can't now! Take him to the tents!" Mannar said.

When they tried to get me there one of them felt on his knee, he had a javelin through his leg.

"Hold on! We just need to-!" The other one didn't had time to finish the phrase, he was shot at the head by a sniper.

As he felt I felt one the ground with him, by my side there was the soldier wounded by a javelin.

"They're coming through!" Welkin shouted.

They were being charged by bandits armed with curved sabers, they had to fight them hand to hand, but unfortunately, they couldn't hold all of them off, and some of them made through.

"There he is! The commander of the Darcsen Brotherhood! Get him!" One of the bandits said as he pointed at me.

He came running to me but fell on the ground as the soldier that was by my side shoot him in the head with his pistol. More five soldiers of the warpack came from the hills, two of them helped me up as the others tried to hold the bandits off by making a wall of bullets.

"Take the commander to safety! Right now! We'll hold them off! Go! Go! Go!" The wounded soldier said.

As the bring me close to safety I looked around and saw those soldiers being attacked by a dozen of bandits, I've hear their shouts of pain, but still I could do nothing.

"_Do you want to have power?_" That strange voice said again and I passed out.

"_Do you want to have power?"_ The voice asked again.

"_What are you talking about? I need to go protect my comrades!_" I said to the voice.

"_But how can you? You can't move, how will you fight_" The voice said.

This voice surely had a point, I couldn't move my body, how would I be able to fight? And as I was thinking I could hear the sound of the soldiers dying in agony by the sharp sabers of those bandits.

"_These marks are the only thing that keeps you from fighting._" The voice said.

"_These marks? Then take them off!_" I said it

"_I can't, it is only up to you to do that, you must realize the motives that you want to receive this power and burn the strength deep inside you, if the motives are worthy of the power, than you shall receive them._" The voice said.

Everything went quite for some seconds.

"_Show my motives…? To see If they are worthy…?_" I said.

"_Hmm…?_" The voice said.

"_Don't give me that bullshit! While we are talking about this my friends and comrades are being seriously injured and killed! I don't have times for your little games!_" I shouted.

"_And why do you wish to protect them?_" The voice said.

It wouldn't go of this little game, I guess I didn't had a choice, if it was the only way that I could move again, than I would have to go through this.

"_I've being a failure through all my life, I couldn't protect my mother when she came with a strong fever after Zanna was born, I couldn't protect myself when the imperials invaded our village and took me and I couldn't protect my father when he tried to save us while we ran away from the imperial troops. And now, I'm unable even to protect my own comrades… That's why I need this power, I need this power, TO PROTECT THOSE THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO ME!_"

Silence took place for a few seconds.

"_Neroh, you're reasons are worthy of the power you seek, so to protect those you must I grant you this ancient power, that shall be with you until your last days. Now burn it, inside of your body, awake the sacred power deep inside you._" The voice said.

I concentrate myself and could fell that power he was talking about, a really warm power, I could feel it. I opened my eyes and got up.

"Si-?!" One of the soldiers said. He looked really surprised.

"Si- sir! Your body!" He said.

I took a look at myself and saw it, those strange dark flames, just like that girl. I also could hear everything and feel everything around me very clear, it seemed that the world was going slower than me, I could also see further, even though it seemed and advantage, I felt I wasn't in control of my body at all.

I started walking in the direction of the battle that was going on ahead, when I appeared everyone stopped, it looked like I had surprised even the enemy.

"Get him!" One of the bandits said.

He ran in my direction and jumped with his saber up to cut me in half, it was so quickly that not even I understood what happened. What I did was move to the right and grabbed him when he was falling with my left hand, what surprised me though is that it was so quickly that the bandit didn't even saw me moving one step to the right.

The bandit that was now, literally, in my hand was crying.

"Please! Spare me!" He said.

I came close to his ear and said.

"Did you spare the injured ones when they asked you to?"

He was quite.

"That's what I thought." I said.

I pulled my left arm all the way back and through him in the air, he flew for at least ten meters before hitting the ground. The other bandits saw that and came right at me.

"Damn you! Die bastard!" They shout.

When they came close enough to attack me I simply walked through them and reached their first tank, and again, it was the same thing, I walked through them but it was like I was a ghost, it was so fast they didn't even turned their heads to see me.

When I reached the first tank I punched the hull and my hand got through it, I lifted up and threw at the second tank they had and they both exploded at the impact. Now they are terrorized, they run away from the hills like they run from death itself, as they run some of them get captured by the Militia.

"Neroh!" I looked around and saw Zanna there.

"Zann- KUHH!" That pain strikes me again, and once again, I passed out.

When I woke up I was in the truck again and there was Nazir,Nanah, Zanna and Mannar. We were at the Militia H.Q. now, I guess I've slept more than I expected.

"Neroh!" Zanna said.

I get up.

"How are you felling?" Nanah asked.

"I'm fine, I just feel a little headache, that's all." I answered.

"So, if that's all, can I ask you something? What just happened back there?" Nazir asked.

"Well…" I told the whole story about the girl, the voice and the flames while Mannar checked on me to see if I was okay.

"Hmm… I see." Nazir said.

"But what are we going to do now?" Nanah asked.

"I guess our only bet is to get back to Barious Desert." I said.

"I guess you're right." Nazir said.

As we speak Welkin appears.

"Hey there! How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay… Hey Welkin, listen. I hope you could keep what happened as a secret, at least until i find out what is going on." I said.

"No problem, and don't worry about the others of the squad, I was the only there when it happened, the others were ahead, trying to contact reinforcements." Welkin said.

"Thank you."

Welkin walked away. I turned to Mannar and asked.

"What about those that tried to protect me?"

Everyone lowered their heads, the tension had grown.

"I'm sorry Nerho, I did all I could…" Mannar said.

"How many?"

"sixteen."

I was shocked, I couldn't believe that so many died trying to protect me.

"Have you buried them yet?"

"Yes, the Milita let us use their cemetery."

I got up and walked to the cemetery, the rest of them followed me. When I got there the rest of the warpack was there, they were crying for the lost comrades, they saw me, and I must admit, they were a little different now, some looked at me with fear, and others with doubts. I can't blame them, they have saw someone that wasn't me that day, more like a monster than a man. I came closer to the tombstones of my comrades that tried to help me, even costing their own lives.

"Don't worry comrades, your deaths will not be in vain." I said.

After a couple of hours we were getting ready to move out when Zig appeared.

"Hey Neroh! I have some news!"

"What?" I asked him.

"The spies of the Militia said that those bandits that attacked us have a base in Barious Desert!"

"Those are great news, but we need to check on something first before we can go there and kick their asses Zig." Nazir said.

"Not really." I said.

They all looked at me.

"But Neroh, what about you're condition?" Zanna asked.

"That can wait, now we have some rats to deal with. Here is what we're going to do, we're going to spend the next weak going from every village from northern Gallia and recruit as many people to join our warpack." I said.

"Then what?" Mannar asked.

"Then we go back to the War House and plan our attack, we also are going to need support from one of the warpacks. Everyone, prepare to move out!"

"Yes sir!" The warpack said.

For a moment, those sentiments of fear and distrust disappeared and the soldiers started to believe in me once again. To the north we march, for soon we'll be taking the forces of the Darcsen Brotherhood to deal with the rats that have placed themselves in the desert. For justice, we march!


	26. Chapter 25: The deal

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 25: The deal

On week have passed and now we're back at the War House. As we passed through the gates the soldiers inside the walls look at us surprised by our numbers, a week before we were a force with about one hundred soldiers, now we are a force of at least three hundred and fifty soldier, we are no army with such a number, but for the time being it was enough to handle a bunch of bandits. When we we're entering I heard heavy footsteps coming for my direction, when I turned I saw Frederic running right to me, with his arms wide open.

"W- Wait! Frederic Wait!" My attempts to stop him were of no use, he bear hugged me again and almost broke my ribs.

"My friend! I'm so happy you're okay! I'm so happy you're all okay!" Frederic kept shouting and shaking me around while I fight to get free of him in desperation for air, but failed to do so.

"Hey there! Slow down, you're going to kill him, you drunken idiot!" Richard came and stopped him.

"Oh! Sorry, I think I exaggerated a little…" Frederic finally let me go.

I fall with my face on the ground, almost without air. I tried to thank Richard for saving my life, but I couldn't talk yet, I was still trying to breath, Nanah and Nazir helped me up.

"So, quite a big force you've got here hun?" Richard asked, very interested.

"Oh! That's right, it's like you've been collecting recruits from all Gallia!" Frederic said. He just noticed that the warpack have more soldiers.

"Well, just half of it." I said.

"Really?!" They both looked surprised.

"Yeah, I've been recruiting soldiers from every village in Northern Gallia since the last week."

"WHAT?!" They both shouted, now they were more surprised.

"Well, that's quite an achievement from you." Richard said.

"Is it?" I asked, scratching the back of my head.

"Of course it is, to have so many to join your cause means that you're fame keeps growing and growing in gallian lands, wait until word from you're deeds cross the border, there will be plenty more that'll want to join you."

I never thought about that before, but for now, we have the force we needed.

"But I'm guessing that collecting such a force in such a small means you're trying to deal with something." Richard said.

"Yes, we're going to deal with bandits from the Empire, we've heard that one of their main bases was hidden somewhere in the Barious Desert region."

Richard buts one hand on his chin and the other under his elbow and looks at the ground, thinking.

"I think I can help you in this one." He said.

"Really? How?" I asked him.

"Some of my boys were bandits that were hiding in Barious Desert. They know there ways around there. Some of them are new to my warpack, so they may know if something strange has happened around there. I'll prepare them as quickly as I can." Richard said.

"Wait! There's no need for that now, we've been moving for a week, we sure would appreciate some rest." I said.

"Okay than. Hmm…" Richard said. He was staring at me.

"What?"

"What is that?" He pointed to my arm, in a part of the uniform that was ripped and he could see a something black on my arm.

"That's nothing! It's just a war wound! Nothing to be worried about! Ha ha ha…" I said, trying to hide the truth from him, but I think I might have just exaggerated a little.

He kept staring intensely at me for some seconds, and I tried to hold myself, I could feel a drop of cold sweat rolling down my forehead…

"Hmm…" He kept starring intensely at me for some more seconds.

"Okay than, see you tomorrow!" He quickly turned and walked away, Frederic followed him.

"*Sigh* that was close." I said, relieved.

"Do you think its okay to hide this from him?" Nanah asked me.

"it's alright, I don't want anyone out of the Darcsen Brotherhood to know, at least, not until I'm sure of what this is." I said.

_**Five days before…**_

"_Neroh! We're ready to move to the next village!" Nazir said._

"_Okay, but before we move, can you borrow me a shirt?" Neroh asked._

"_Sure. Here."_

"_Thanks!"_

_Neroh takes off his shirt and Nazir notices something strange._

"_Neroh, what is that on your arm?"_

"_On my ar- HAAA!" Neroh got scared._

_He looked at his arm and saw that there was a strange black mark slowly growing, it had the same runes as that girl at the Barious Desert, but the difference is that the ones the girl had were in her cloths, this was growing on Neroh's skin._

"_Wait, I'll call Mannar-" Nazir was going to call Mannar but Neroh holds him by the arm._

"_No, I don't think this is a health issue." Neroh said._

"_Do you think this also has to do with that girl?"_

"_Maybe, but we'll only be sure until we get to Barious Desert…"_

_**End of Flashback.**_

"Oh great! Now we have more trash to deal with!"

"What did you said? Take that back!" We heard an arguing going on.

A few meters from where we were the new members of the Darcsen Brotherhood were arguing with soldiers from Heaven Arms. We ran there to stop them before things get more serious.

"Say that again you pig! I dare you!" The new recruit said.

"What did you called me, you darcsen trash!" The Heaven Arms responded.

When they were ready to start a fight me and Nazir got in their way and stopped them.

"Stand down soldier!" I said to the new recruit.

"But sir! Didn't you heard what he said?" He asked me.

"The warpacks have united for one reason and one reason only, I'll not tolerate fighting between the other warpacks! Now, stand down!"

The recruit that was with his fist up slowly put them down again, and walked away to the rest of the group.

"Ha ha! You should put him on a leash or something, and while you're on it, you should put one on yourself darcsen!" The soldier from Heaven Arms said.

"Hey! Watch your mouth boy!" Nazir said, pointing a knife to the soldier.

I turned around and walked to him. He was shaking and was sweating too much.

"Wha- what do you want?" The soldier said, sacared.

"Let me be very clear now, I said that I'll not tolerate fighting between the warpacks, but that counts for you all as well, if you cause trouble to my soldiers again I'll have to be sure that you'll be properly, how should I say it… punished." I said while I showed him my pistol on my waist.

"What?! Are you crazy darcsen?!" He said to me.

As he said that I punched him in his stomach and he felt to the ground. At that moment all members of both warpacks started shouting and pointing weapons at each other. When silence came I crouched next to the man that now was rolling in pain on the ground.

"That's another thing, we all have names here, so you better stop call every single one of us darcsen, do you understand me?" I said.

He just looked at with hate in his eyes. I approached him even more and whispered in his ear:

"_You know that look you're making, I also hate that. You may take advantage of other darcsens but as long as they are in my warpack you better watch yourself cause I'll make you suffer for every decision that you make to heart the members of my warpack, no matter if it'll heart them verbally or physically, you got that?_"

"_Go… to hell!_" The boy whispered as he tries to get up.

I get up and said:

"Well, I guess we're done here, let's move and prepare a camp site!"

"_Hey! Are you okay?_"

"_Let me help you up_"

"_That damn darcsen…_" I heard the other members of Heaven Arms talking while we headed to prepare our camp.

**Darcsen Brotherhood's camp. 07:00 p.m.**

It's already dawn and everyone goes to their tents, I was checking my weapons and preparing my equipment for tomorrows morning when Nanah came in.

"Sorry for the intrusion." She said.

"Oh, hi Nanah. What is it?" I asked her.

She looked concerned. She hugged me from behind and said.

"I'm worried about you." She said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because every day since that day you're in constant pain, even if you're hiding from everyone, you can't hide from me."

"Sorry if I let you concerned about me, but with a bit of luck we can find that girl from Barious Desert and see what is going on. That's why… you don't need to worry so much about it, okay?"

She looked to me and nodded in affirmation.

"So, I guess I should go to sleep now." I said it.

I said that but Nanah was still there, looking at me.

"What is it, are you still concerned about me?"

"It's not that… it's just that…"

"Hmm…?"

"Can I…sleep here with you?" She said.

"What?!" I was really surprised when she asked that.

"It's not how you think, it's just that I wanna make sure you'll be okay tonight, so…" She said and then stood quiet for a while.

"*Sigh* I guess, there is no problem than…" I said.

She smiled.

We went to bed each turned to opposite sides, we were both so embarrassed that we couldn't even look at each other's face.

"You know… that isn't really necessary, I'm fine." I said.

"I just want to make sure that you'll be okay…" She answered.

"*Sigh* I guess I can't make you change your mind…"

A silence took place for some seconds.

"Hey, Neroh." Nanah said.

"Hmm? What?" I asked her.

"If I were in trouble, would you come to help me?"

"Of course I would."

"If I was in danger, would you come to protect me?"

"Yes! I'll never let any harm come to you!"

"Then…" I could feel she leaning her forehead against my back.

"Let's make a deal…" She said.

" A deal?"

"Yeah… Whenever I'm in trouble you would come to help me, and whenever I'm in danger you would come to help me, isn't that what you said?"

"Yes."

"Then whenever you're in trouble let me help you, and whenever you're in danger let me protect you as well."

"Nanah…"

"Please Neroh, I want to protect you just the same way you want to protect me, that's why…"

I turned around to look at her, she was crying.

"Please… let me help you…" She said.

I hugged her strongly and said:

"Okay than! It's a deal, you protect me and I protect you…"

"Thank you… *sob* sob*"

I dried off her tears.

"Don't worry, I promise that no matter what, I'll protect you, okay?"

"Okay, and so will I!" She said, with a beautiful smile on her face.

**On the way to Barious Desert. 06:45 a.m.**

Now we march to the Barious Desert again, this time we are more careful to not get an encounter with bandits again, last time we were saved by what happened to me, and I'm not sure I can do that again. But the pain is still growing in my arm, together with that mysterious black mark. We followed the soldiers from Outlaw Revolver, and before we knew it, we were already there.

"There it is sir!" One of the soldiers from Outlaw Revolver said.

"What the…?!" Mannar said.

"I can't believe this, how could they build this here and still hide it from the gallian forces?" Nazir asked.

"I-incredible!" Lenna said.

"Incredible indeed…" I said.

And there, right in front of us, a huge fort in the middle of the desert, this place was supposed to be abandoned, and yet, these bandits found a way to build a fortress here and supply themselves, but I still don't get it how they were able to avoid military scouts…

"So Neroh, what are your orders?" Zig asked

"We will set camp here and prepare ourselves for the assault." I said.

The only problem is, I don't think we'll be able to make it inside the fortress, it will be a long week trying to plan how to enter there.


	27. Chapter 26: The soulless one

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 26: The soulless one

Some days have passed since we reached the hidden fortress, and now we're planning how we're going to strike them. But there is a little problem, even with the numbers we got it is impossible to penetrate the fortress defenses, the walls are well guarded and they have long-range artillery, so even If we used our tanks to tear down the walls they would be gone in no time. By passing some days here in the Barious Desert I noticed something that could help us when the time come for us to take the fortress, the sand storms around this area are quite numerous, almost every day that passes there is a sand storm in this region, I fought we could use that for our advantage.

Every time a sand storm strikes the guards on the walls retreat to the buildings inside the fortress, they don't think someone is going to attack the fortress in the middle of the sand storm because that would mean suicide, nobody can survive the sand storms of this area because they are just too strong, but my ghost soldiers aren't nobody, and the enemy didn't counted on that.

We prepared ourselves for the attack, the enemy can see us but they can do nothing, we are too far away, there was no problem in letting them see that we were here. When the storm came the soldiers retreated to their buildings, and so the ghost soldiers led by Nazir were put to action.

"Okay! Go now!" I said to Nazir and his man.

They ran through the sand storms. We waited for some hours for their signal, the plan was that they would climb the walls of the fortress and open the gates for us to come in.

After almost half an hour we saw a small and weak glow coming from the fortress walls, it was Nazir making a signal with his knife, it was barely visible because of the storm.

"Okay, we're going in!" I said to the rest of the group.

They prepared themselves putting on a big and dense cloak that would cover their entire bodies, it will protect them from the wind of the storm and their eyes from the sand, we just needed to walk forward until we hit the fortress walls.

"Now you guys, remember the signal okay?" I said to Lokky that now command our tanks.

"Roger that!" He answered.

We walked through the sand storm to get to the fortress, but the wind was so hard that kept throwing us out of our way, still, we made it to the fortress gates, now opened with the welcoming of the Ghost Soldiers.

"You took you're time." Nazir said to me.

"The most hard walk I ever made my friend." I answered to him.

"What now?" Zanna asked me.

"Now, we sabotage their long-ranges artillery cannons!" I said, and pulled of a bag full of explosives.

"Well, we better hurry, it looks like the storm is about to stop." Mannar said.

So Mannar, Nazir, Zig, Nanah, Zanna and I started to plant the explosives, they were made to explode at the moment the cannons were fired. We were done with the explosives, but that's when things got bad for us. The strong sand storm that was keeping the enemy soldiers inside the building was now gone. We heard a door opening, when I turned I saw one of the bandits getting off one of the buildings.

"Wha- Gallians! There are Gallia-" Before the bandit could finish shouting our presence to the others Nazir pulled his knife out and threw it right at his head, the bandit felt right there.

"Quickly! We must take that building!" Nazir shouted.

And all the soldiers came running to the building the bandit came out of, surprising all of the enemy troops that were inside of it, we cleaned that place in no time.

To take down this fort we needed to take the barracks, their command center, but it wasn't going to be easy. As we tried to proceed to the next building we are pinned down by a machine gun in one of the towers of the forts.

"Damn! We need help from the tanks!" Nazir said.

As soon as I could I pulled my radio out of my bag and shouted coordinates to our tanks, after a couple of minutes their mortar strikes hit the towers and they go down in one strike.

"Damn it! They have artillery support! Quick, get to the cannons!" One of the bandits captain shouted.

They aimed their artillery cannons at our tanks and fired, for their surprise the cannons blew up and took down most of their units that were near them.

"Go! Press forward while they are scattered!" Nazir said.

We advanced taking down every enemy that appeared on the way, eventually we made to the barracks and searched the place for their commander.

"Nazir, Mannar, you'll go east. Zig, Zanna, go north, Nanah, you're with me, we'll go south, the rest of you head to the west of the building, find the enemy commanding officer and bring him alive, he may know something about the location of Clementia Forster!" And so we split to find the commanding officer of this Imperial fortress.

Nanah and I reached a room that seemed to be the room of the commanding officer. I slowly opened the door and entered the room with Nanah behind me. I felt something cold touching the back of my head.

"Drop that rifle now!" Someone said.

I dropped my rifle on the ground and he pushed me to go forward to the center of the room, my luck is that he didn't noticed Nanah that was on the corridor, monitoring the whole situation, just waiting for my order to act.

"So, this is the commander that captured my beautiful war ship?" I turned around.

I saw a fat bald old man with a big gray mustache that was pointing a pistol at me, he remembered me a little bit of General Damon.

"First you take my battle ship, than you destroy one of my hordes and now you dare attack my beautiful fortress?" The man said.

"I would do anything to protect mother Gallia from the Empire!" I said to him.

"The Empire? HA HA HA HA HA!" He starts to laugh like a crazy man.

"What is so funny?"

"Nothing, except the fact that you'll die without knowing the whole truth." He pointed the pistol to me.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not going to die today." I made a signal with my hand to Nanah.

"Freeze! Drop the gun!" She said as she aims at his head with her rifle.

The man let go of the weapon and lift his hands up.

"Well now, we'll just have to make a few questions to you" I said.

As I was starting to interrogate the commander Zig appeared.

"Hey Neroh, we didn't find anyone at the-" Zig stopped talking as soon as he saw the commanding officer of the bandits, he looked shocked.

"You…" Zig said.

He pulled out his pistol and aimed at the enemy commanding officer.

"Zig, what are you doing?!" Nanah said.

"It was all his fault! My village was destroyed because of him, my friends and my parents are dead because of him! He was the one that attacked my village!" Zig said,I could see the rage in his eyes.

"Okay now Zig, let's calm down for a second." I said trying to calm him down.

His hands started to shake and I can hear the sound of the metal moving as he slowly pulls the trigger of the pistol.

"Wait now Zig, just hold on!" I said.

"No! He must pay for what he did! He must pay!" Zig said.

This doesn't even looked like the Zig we know, the boy that was all about fun and playing around, the one that kept jumping and running with excitement everywhere we marched. This boy was full of hate and was hungry for revenge.

"Okay, fine! Pull the trigger if you want to!" I said to him.

"What?!" Nanah said.

He was almost at the end of the trigger.

"But first! Ask yourself this! Did your parents wish you to revenge them?" I asked him.

He stopped, the face that was full of anger now looks confused.

"Did the friends of your village that cared so much for you wish the same? I don't think so. Zig, you're better than this, does this man committed horrible crimes against the people of Gallia? Yes he did, and he'll pay for it, but this is not the way. He is a cruel cold assassin, don't be like him Zig, just drop the gun…"

Little by little Zig convinced himself that that was not the right thing to do and had finally dropped the gun on the floor. He felt on his knees and started crying.

"*Sigh*" I was relieved.

"It's okay Zig, you're friends are here for you…" Nanah tries to comfort him.

We head our attention at Zig the entire time and forgot about the enemy's commanding officer, when I turned he had the pistol that Zig dropped with him and was pointing at us, before Nanah could aim at him with her rifle he said:

"Stop! Drop the rifle right now!"

Nanah had no other choice.

"You're so full boy, you had the chance to revenge you're family and friends and you wasted, now you'll see them personally again. Time for the family reunion…" He said as he pointed the pistol to Zig.

But before he could shoot a knife came flying and hits his hand, making him to drop the pistol on the ground and shout in pain. Nanah was quick and grabbed her rifle from the ground as fast as she could. I looked to the door and there was Nazir.

"It would've been better for him if he had stood down." He said.

"I agree with you, you appeared at the right moment!"

The enemy's commanding officer is captured and the fortress is taken, all of the enemy units in the fortress have surrendered and they're now my prisoners. As we prepared to load the trucks and send this prisoners to the Militia H.Q. one of the soldiers came running to me.

"Sir! We have bad news!" He looked scared.

"Calm down comrade! What is it?" I asked.

"At least a thousand bandits are coming to the fortress! They come mounting horses and camels, and they're coming fast!"

"What?! Close the gates!"

"We can't! They're too close already!" One of the soldiers shouted.

"Then we have no choice. Everyone prepare your weapons! Bayonets on! Tank squad! Get up hill and prepare the mortar artillery!"

"Roger!" Lokky said.

"Nazir! Take the Ghost Soldiers to the top of the roofs and also place tome heavy machine guns on the towers that are not too much damaged!"

"Yes Sir!" Nazir said.

"The rest of you, form a line! Snipers and rifleman kneel on front! Machine guns standing in the back!"

The troops started to move, and from the middle of the dust that raises in the desert they came, a gigantic horde of bandits mounting horses and camels, using sabers and a few using pistols, they came running at us.

"Wait a second…" I said.

When they got close enough I gave the order for the tanks to fire the mortars and it hits them really bad, but they didn't stop coming.

"Fire at will!" I said.

All the troops started to fire, the bullets hits the bandits and one by one they start to fall, heavy machine guns from the towers keep shooting and quickly starts to get low on ammo, and so does Nazir and the Ghost Soldiers started to get low on arrows and throwing knives.

"Stop firing!" I said.

All of the guns stopped the shooting and they could be seen in the distance, most of the bullets we fired hits their horses and camels, and now they come to us running, like mad man ready to die, but the few cavalry that remains tries to charge one last time.

"How are we on ammo?" I asked Mannar.

"Very low, we can't hold them forever." He said.

"Okay! We'll need to use the bayonets! Everyone in line and ready!"

We prepared as the horde of bandits charge in our directions, the steps from the horses and camels gets stronger as they come closer and closer.

"Now!" I shouted.

Using our bayonets we were able to strike down the cavalry, once the horse is dead, we just need to kill the rider that's on the floor, but now the rest of the horde that is on foot is coming for us, and we had just shot our last bullets, they were coming in a force of at least six hundred man, we were tired and outnumbered, and we can't use our tanks as support now because the enemy is too close to us, I didn't knew what was going to happen next, but we prepared for the worst.

The bandits finally reached us in a turbulent and stunning clash, we tried to fight our way out of there but it seemed hopeless to even try, that's when it happened. From the gates of the fortress I saw a familiar figure, a small person covered with a cape full of ancient runes, it was her, the same girl that saved me from Selvaria.

She came running to the enemy, it was amazing as every blow she gives ten of the fall, she threw her dagger and it passed through fifteen bandits. They start to flee as they are terrorized by the strange girl.

"It's over! They're running away!" Mannar cheered with the others of the warpack.

"Yeah, but not thanks to us at least." I said, looking at the girl.

"Las time we didn't had the chance to introduce ourselves properly, I'm Neroh, what's your name?"

"Lirya." She said, still with no emotion on her eyes.

"Sir! The prisoners escaped!" One of the soldiers told me.

"Even the commander?"

"Yes sir!"

"Well, at least we're alright, for now. Did we lost anyone?"

"We have a few injured man, but they'll be alright." Mannar said.

"And what about you?" I asked Lirya.

"My master told me to find you and bring you to him." She said.

"You're master?"

"Yes, he lives in a temple, not to faraway from here."

And so she guided us to her master as she said, but who was her master? And how did he know about me? Well, I guess I'll have the answers soon, there just one thing that it's still bugs me, what that commanding officer said to me…

**In a meeting room at the Imperial military base of operations in Gallia…**

There was Maximilian with all his generals around him.

"Well than, shall we start?" Asked Jaeger.

They were about to start when suddenly someone came in.

"I'm sorry for my delay your majesty." The man that walked inside the room said.

"At least all of my generals are here. And how are you're plans going?" Maximilian said.

"They're going well my prince, there is nothing to worry about." The man said.

"Good, we'll need any force we can to capture Gallia, that's why you're here, General Arkadius Apollinaris."

"Why yes my lord, to serve you is my purpose of life." Arkadius said.

He said that but his eyes looked malicious. The whole meeting Selvaria had an anger look to him, she knew he had his own intentions rather to serve Maximilian, for he was indeed a mysterious man.

In the middle of the meeting one of Arkadius captains entered the room and approached him.

"Hmm? Oh, I see." Arkadius said as he got up from his chair.

"I must ask my lord, is there anything else your highness would like to discuss with me?" He asked Maximilian.

"No, you are free to go." Maximilian answered.

"Well then, if you excuse me, I have some business to attend to." Arkadius said as he left the room.

After the meeting was over everyone got out of the room and got back to their business, Selvaria followed Maximilian as usual.

"My lord, you should not thrust that man." Selvaria said.

"Hmm? What are you talking about Selvaria?" Maximilian asked.

"Arkadius, my lord, I can feel that he has more intentions than to realize your orders my lord."

"Selvaria, there is nothing to be worried about, Arkadius have no intention to betray me. Even if he was a Gallian in the past now he serves me and only me."

"But my lord-"

"Enough. This conversation ends here!"

Selvaria holds her tong.

"Y- yes my lord." She said.

They continued to walk. Meanwhile, at Arkadius office.

"So, what happened?" Arkadius asked the commanding officer that had escaped the Darcsen Brotherhood.

"They came during one of the sandstorms sir, we don't know how they opened the gates, and they also sabotaged our artillery sir!" The commander said.

"But in other words, they took the fortress didn't they?"

"Y-yes sir!"

"Well, I guess it's over for you…" Arkadius picks up his revolver and pulled a bullet of a drawer from his cabinet.

"Wha-?! Wait sir! I still can do something!" The commander said.

"I'm sorry commander, but you know that I don't like to deal with failures. I guess you just have bad luck." Arkadius said with a malicious expression on his face as he pulls the trigger and kill the commander.

"Sir! We heard a shot!" One of his soldiers came in the office and saw the commander dead on the floor.

"Take this body out of here!" Arkadius said.

"Y- yes sir!" two soldiers came in and dragged the body out of the office, letting a trail of blood on the floor.

"And call someone to clean this up!"

"Yes sir! Immediately!" The soldier said an left.

"My lord, what do we do about the warpacks?" One of his captains asked him.

"Don't worry, in time, they'll be nothing more than dust and stories of brave but foolish warriors… After all, no one is going to stop me from reaching my dream…"


	28. Chapter 27: The burning truth

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 27: The burning truth

We are now marching through the scalding Barious Desert being led by a darcsen girl named Lyria that appeared to have strange powers, the same powers that I experienced not so long ago. She said that her master told her to find us in the fortress and bring us to him. I wonder who this person might be, and how he knew about us and were we where, and more importantly, if he know what's going on with me.

After a couple of hours walking through the desert, we finally arrived, it was a strange place though.

"Here, the master is inside the temple." Lyria said.

She said temple, but from where I was it was just a big mountain with a small entrance, didn't really looked like a temple to me. As we passed through the small entrance we see the inside of it. It was huge! From top to bottom the walls had spaces in them that were full of different weapons. They all were made by the same strange metal as Lyria's dagger, the whole place was lightened up by strange flames that seemed to have a dark color. In the middle of the temple there was a man sitting on the ground with a smoking pipe on his mouth. I couldn't see him very well since the middle of the temple was darker than the rest of the temple itself.

Lyria approached the man and said:

"They're here master."

The man got up and slowly approached us, when he came out of the dark and finally step were there was light we could see his face, we were surprised for the moment, for he looked just like King Oscar, one of the rulers of Gallia in medieval times.

"What's the matter? You seemed pale." The man asked me in a really calm voice.

"I'm sorry, it's just that you look so much like King Oscar that I got scared for a second." I said to him.

"Well, maybe that's because I am King Oscar."

"…Hun?"

"That's what you heard, I am Oscar Alziro Magnus Borghild, known many centuries ago as the king of Gallia."

"Hun?!" Everyone shouted.

"Relax a little, come and drink some tea with me, I shall explain it."

After a while he talked to us and told us the whole story.

"Now, I'm sure you all want to know how I am still alive." Oscar said.

"Well, that's for sure." I said it.

"To understand my existence, Lyria's existence, and your own we must look back some thousand years behind our current time."

"My existence?"

"Oh why yes! Tell me, since that day that you met Lyria didn't something strange happened? Didn't you feel stronger, faster and healthier?"

When he said that, a flashback of that day when those strange powers took control over me appeared in my head.

"By the reaction on your face I think something did happen." Oscar said as he pulled the smoking pipe of his mouth and blew off the smoke in the smooth wind in the air.

For a moment he closed his eyes and the expression in his face turned to a serious one.

"Thousands of years ago there was nothing more than suffering and pain over the land and the ones that lived on it. The people suffered from wars, diseases, crimes, they seemed all out of hope. One day, strange man that seemed not from this land appeared. They wore strange cloths with symbols the folk did not understand, their skin were quite clear and their hair were of a certain tone of dark blue. They asked who they were and they answered 'we are darcsens'. Since the darcsens had appeared the people had stopped suffering, with their help they taught the people about medical care, mathematics, arts, philosophy and also the art of war. With the help of the darcsens the people were now a growing society, as the darcsens saw that the people could take care of themselves now they decided to leave, but the people wouldn't let them, for they learned to love the darcsens and the darcsens learned to love the people. The people asked for they to stay, and in return they would turn they into their kings, and so that it was born the Darcsen Kingdoms, being Gallia one of them."

"So, you're saying that darcsens were seen as saviors by the people?" I asked him.

"Yes indeed."

"Hun, can't understand how we ended up being hated so much…"

"After the formation of the Darcsen Kingdoms the alliances with the other countries of Europa has grown, especially the northern countries that had the best tradable items, and also the best warriors. As the years past things started to change, especially one of the darcsen kings, he was getting greedier and the people's welfare meant nothing to him anymore. It didn't took him to long to take an action, he himself, without the help of the other kings decided to attack the kingdoms of the north, his own allies. The kings of the north asked for the help of the other darcsen kings and they accepted to help, the battle took place in one of the the northern villages that was already under the attack of the greedy king. The battle took hours to end, but it ended with the head of the greedy king hanging from a northern warrior spear."

"Is that how it ended?" Zig asked.

"You would think that way, but after the northern kings saw the power of the darcsen kings they were lead by fear to stop them, they used the excuse that it was to prevent something like that to happen again, but it was only fear that drove them to do such a thing. They assembled the Valkyrias, female holy warriors of the north, known by their bravery in battle and their mystical powers, they attacked and killed the kings that were in the battlefield along with all their troops. When the remaining darcsen kings knew about this betrayal they prepared themselves to fight back, but it was in vain. King after king was send to fight the northern forces, but one by one they were defeated by the power of the Valkyria."

King Oscar stopped talking to smoke a little.

"Do you know about the ruins near here?" Oscar asked me.

"Yes, what about them?" I asked him.

"That was the city were the last darcsen kings made their last stand against the valkyrian offensive, they managed to create some sort of weapon that was activated by ragnite, and they were ready when the northern forces appeared, but at the decisive moment came something went wrong and a great explosion of ragnite happened, destroying the whole city, those who survive were the last three darcsen kings, two stood for battle against the northern forces and one ran away. The two darcsen kings fought a good time against the northern forces, but when the Valkyria appeared, they were too exhausted to continue and they were killed right where they stood. As a reward, the northern kings gave the valkyrias a place where they would make their own kingdom, they gave them Gallia, but after the years the sons and daughters of the kings that were slaughtered returned and assassinated the Valkyrias. The cycle of hate continued until there were too few left to continue the killing, and so both sides hid in the shadows and forgot it all about it."

"But how do you know this, and how can you prove you're telling the truth?" I asked him.

"I actually can't, the person that told me all this was my old master."

"Who was you're master?"

"He was the king that ran away in the last stand, although he never said his name really. Out of shame he forgot his name that once he used as a proudly king."

"But, what about the temple?"

"Hmm? Oh! You mean the temple in the ruins? Well, I don't really know about that, but there is one thing that I learned, and that thing is that the victorious are the ones that write the history."

"You mean that the Valkyria make it look like as if the darcsens were tyrants?"

"Well, I don't really mean that since I don't really know what happened, but it is a possibility."

"And what about you? How can you be alive for all these years?"

"I learned an ancient technique from my master."

"Ancient technique?"

"Yes, I have to conserve great part of my power in return I'll slow down the aging of my body and the detritions of my soul, but one day, as every living being in this world, I shall rest in peace too. After I learned this technique my master has gone away…"

"Why did you choose to live for so long?"

"There are two reasons for that, one is to teach those that are like you and me, about our past, from where we came from and to teach them how to control this power that rests inside you."

"And the second one?"

"That is something I can't reveal to you, for it was a secret that I've swore to my old master to take it to my tomb."

This does kind of sound suspicious, but at least they know what is happening to me, and more than what I expected, what I am…

"But even though you explained all that it is still hard to understand what I am exactly…" I said.

"In the past we had many names, mostly in a long lot language we wouldn't understand this day, but one of them is the most remarkable one, the one that made the fame of those before us to be known, they called us Guardians."

"Guardians you say…? But if I'm a Guardian, what about Zanna? After all, she's my sister."

He stopped and smoked his pipe again for a second.

"Even though you are siblings, sometimes, only one is born with the power passed down by your ancestors, normally the person that is born with it has a strong will to defend others, that's how the power is slowly awaken inside them, Lyria just made your power to wake faster than the others, to see if you was ready to accept this powers and the motives that you would have to use it."

"I see…"

"And also…" He said as he got up and looked around the temple.

"It would be a great favor to your father."

At the same moment as he said that I got up.

"What do you know about my father?"

He smiled innocently.

"Well, I could tell you a story or two, but this is something for another day, now, I suggest that you and your man make camp."

"What?"

"Well, I believe that you didn't came here just to know about that right, now that you have awaken your Guardian powers, it is time to train them, otherwise it could be very dangerous for you and those around you."

"What do you mean?"

"Those that have no control above their powers are consumed by their own flames, and so does the ones around him."

When he said that memory passed through my head again, and I remembered that even though I was using those flames I could not control my own body, I guess he might be right…

"Okay, I'll stay to train, but I can't take too much time in this place."

"I know, after all, Gallia is at war."

"Yes, what makes me question, why don't you fight for Gallia as well, you were it king's once, weren't you?"

"Well, I'll tell you why, but not now, maybe later…"

After that conversation I got out of the temple and in the outside there were the warpack. Zanna and Nanah came running to my direction.

"Hey Neroh! What happened in there?" Zanna asked.

"Yeah, what was that he said?" Nanah said.

"Calm down now! I'll tell you all everything, but first we must set camp, I think a sand storm is coming…" I said.

After we set camp we waited for the sand storm to pass. A couple of hours have passed and we set around a campfire, I explained the situation to them. At first it was hard to believe me because the whole story was really absurd, but they knew I wasn't really the person that would play with such a thing.

"Wow… So, you mean that man really is King Oscar?" Zig asked.

"Yes." I said.

"And that you are a… what did you called…? Guardian?" Nazir asked.

"Yeah, apparently."

"We won't be going back so soon than?" Nanah asked.

"I don't think so, he said I must train first before we can leave, what worries me is that I'm not sure if it is going to take too much time."

Nanah grabbed my hand with hers and said:

"Don't worry, we'll wait for you!" She lets out a soft smile.

I didn't knew what was going to happened from now on, and I don't know if I'll be able to pass through this training, but at least, I'll have my friends that will support me the whole time, with them by my side I know there is no way I can fail.


	29. Chapter 28: The unification of Gallia

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 28: The unification of Gallia

We followed that girl that appeared in the ruins of the ancient city in Barious Desert, she led us to a mountain with an entrance to what appeared to be an ancient temple of my people, a temple to the darcsens. Inside of it there was a man sitting in the center, it was King Oscar, one of the rulers of Gallia in the past, the mysteries to why he was still alive and what was that power growing inside me were answered by him in that exact day. Now I'm supposed to train here with him, to master this power and control it to protect those who I love and care, today is the first day of my training.

I entered the temple and announced that I was ready to train, Oscar was reading what looked like ancient scrolls.

"So, you're ready hun?"

"Yes."

"Then come along with me."

We got outside the temple.

"So, you're first lesson will be simple" King Oscar said as he approached a big rock.

He suddenly pulled the rock from the ground with only one of his hands and said:

"I'll only need to destroy the rocks that I'll throw at you!" he smiled at the end.

He throws the rock at me and I barely escaped by dodging it.

"What's the matter? You're not supposed to dodge them, you have to destroy them. C'mon, let's try one more time." And he pulled anther huge rock from the ground with his hand.

"W- wait a sec-" I tried to stop him, but he had already thrown the rock at me.

I throw myself at the ground as I saw that the rock passed above me with nothing but centimeters of distance between me and the rock.

"Hmm? I think you didn't get the purpose of this training…" King Oscar said.

"Wait! Just before you throw another rock at me, just listen to me!" I shouted at him.

He stopped and listened, but I did saw that his hand was already touching another rock that was near him.

"How am I supposed to destroy them?"

"With your power, isn't that obvious?"

"But how am I supposed to do this if I even awaken it?"

"hmm…" King Oscar started thinking.

"What happened last time that you were awakened?" He asked me.

"My squad and the Militia were under attack."

"Well I see than…"

He turned around and saw the warpack that was watching the training. He lifted the rock and throws it at them, it was going directly to Nanah.

"What the-" I ran as fast as I could to reach the rock before it hits them, even though it looked impossible. As I ran I watched the expressions in the face of the soldiers of fear of being crushed by that rock, of my friends and Nanah's face. All that I knew is that I needed to get there before that rock.

When I knew I was there, punching that rock into pieces and with the flames rising from my body.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! You could have killed someone!" I shouted at him.

"Relax, relax… I had everything planed, if you would've failed to get there in time Lyria would have stopped the rock." He said.

I looked behind me and between me and Nanah there was Lyria, still with her emotionless face, ready to get the rock if I were too late.

"And also, I do believe that my tactic worked."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Neroh, the flames!" Nanah said.

And it was only than that I noticed that the flames were awaken again, but as soon as I noticed, they've gone away again.

"Hmm… it looks like that you can't keep them burning for long enough, let's work on that." King Oscar said.

"How?" I asked.

"Think of that sensation that you had after you saw that rock coming to your companions, remember it and concentrate on that." King Oscar said.

And so I did, for hours and hours, but nothing really happened. After a while Nazir interrupted my training.

"Neroh, we got an incoming transmission on the radio from the Militia, they're asking us to search the area around here, they said that travelers were attacked recently around here and want us to know if there is any activity happening right now."

"You go, take half of the warpack with you and two tanks, I need to stay and continue my training." I said to him.

"Roger! You guys, with me!" He said pointing at a big group that was almost the same amount of soldiers I said that he could take with him, the others followed him as well.

Before Nanah followed them I pulled by her arm and hugged them saying:

"Be careful, okay?"

I could see her face getting a little red.

"I- idiot… of course I'll be okay." She let out a small smile, and then we kissed.

After she goes I lifted my hand and waved to Zanna.

"You be careful to Zanna!" I shouted to her.

"Okay Neroh!" She shouted back with a smile.

After that I returned to my training, trying to control that feeling and wake the flames again. Some hours later we finished the training for the day, without any success… I walked around to see if I could find anything interesting here, but the place looks like a dead plain, not a single living soul except for the warpack and King Oscar and his apprentice. I stayed by the side of the radio to keep in contact with the part of the warpack that had gone to look around the area, but I couldn't get a signal…

"Damn radio, what's going on with this thing?" I was wondering.

"It must be because of the sand storm." I turned around and there was King Oscar.

"King Oscar? How did you-"

"Please, just call me Oscar, I am no longer the king of this nation." He said after interrupting me.

"So, may I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"How come you're a Guardian?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, forgive me but, you don't look like a darcsen."

In fact, Oscar didn't had any feature that a darcsen would have.

"Oh! Yes, I see why you are confused, but I am darcsen from my great grandmother's side."

"And, may I ask how did you become the king of Gallia? I mean, it's just so strange that you appeared out of nowhere, especially since you were told by history to be an street urchin. I'm quite curious to know what happened."

Oscar than took a deep breath and looked at the sky as he lets the air inside he's lungs out.

"You see, at that time I was already an apprentice to my master, but even so, those days were the worst to be lived in. Gallia was not a unified nation at the time, it was more of a big messy group of small barbaric nations, all of them with their own culture, languages and beliefs. The reason why Gallia was a target of so many barbarian attacks was because of the lack of command and organization that it had, in those times the king of Gallia was chosen by how big was his army, his treasure and by his popularity with the commoners, if a king wasn't satisfied with the king that was chosen by such methods, he could challenge him to a duel, so many good kings died in such duels, letting the inefficient kings to take control of Gallia and ruin it the way they wanted to. The attacks always took more of Gallia than saved it, and the people also suffered of diseases, hunger and the ignorance of the king's soldiers. As the time passes my master knew it was just a matter of time before Gallia became nothing more than a dead land with only fire and ashes, he came to me and said that it was time for a new king to rise the throne of Gallia, not one that would be of noble bloodline, but one that would answer to the people's wishes and that would unify the barbarian lords under his banner to a single powerful nation, he said. He chose me to carry on such duty, and I accepted. As I wondered on the streets around the castle of Gallia I demanded, shouting at the castle walls to fight the king, after five days the king was tired of my 'insolence' and accepted my challenge. At that time I was just a young man, and the king hoped to make an example of me, so he gathered all of the plebeians around an improvised arena and armed himself with his claymore and put it on his armor plate, I didn't had nothing to fight with him though, all that I had were the cloths on my body and my fists. The guards had some pity of me and gave me a small dagger. The match had started, but it didn't last long, after three seconds the king was bleeding on the floor, with not a single breath of life resting in his lungs. The personal guards of the king would rather see me dead than to let me sit on the throne of Gallia, after all, I had no blood lineage to nobility and didn't even owned a castle of my own to call myself a lord, so they aimed their spears against me and demanded that I surrender myself to them. But the people stood by my side, I had won the match against the king fare and square, and it had begun a riot in the castle, in the end the remaining soldiers to the old king had surrendered themselves and I was crowed in that same day king of Gallia. The people seemed to be very happy with the annunciation of a new king that was one of their own, they were quite tired of the tyranny of their noble lords. Of course, after the day I was crowned king the word reached the lord's and the other king's ears and some of them were quite mad with this 'outrage', others seemed quite supportive to this turn of events, some even thought I was sent from some of their deities, and so it had begun, the war for the reunification of Gallia. The war was not kind to anyone, many suffered towards the eleven years of oppression and slaughtering that happened. But in the end, Gallia's forces had won. The last battle took place in one of the last opposing king's castle, he had little force and all of his lords were already working for us, the siege lasted fifteen days before the lord and the remaining troops opened the gates and with their hands in air, surrendered themselves to us."

"Wow! That's quite a story, but how did you managed to hold out on Fort Oscar?"

"I'm almost there. After the war was over it was time to judge the lords and kings for their crimes, only two were found to be judged, since the other lords and kings were forgiven and joined our armies. One of them was convicted guilty of genocide of innocent civilians, the people demanded for the evil king's head, and we had no other choice, the lords and the other kings all agreed that he must suffer for his sins, and so I had to condemn him to the guillotine. The other king was forgiven for his acts for he was only doing what he was told to do by the other king who had made his family hostage. After that we begun to rebuild the kingdom, there was a lot to do, but we got stopped by the flames of war once again. The barbarian hordes had come, and they come to take Gallia for themselves, in the past Gallia had only survived the barbarian invasions in the base of miracles that happened every single war, it was the only way to explain it really, for Gallia lost much more soldiers than the barbarians, but the barbarians came prepared this time, the barbarian kings brought with them thousands of soldiers, and this time they were not mere untrained peasants that didn't knew how to use a sword, these were trained raiders, wearing heavy mail armor, long swords and long bows, they even had siege weapons this time, but they didn't knew that now Gallia was a unified nation again, with man that have a common language, culture and reasons to protect this reborn country, and we were going to stand against them.

After some days battling off the barbarian hordes, we reached the climax of the war, and the place for the last battle would be in an old fort in the edges of the gallian borders, it was not in a good shape, but it was the best we could do at that time. Day after day, the barbarians attacked the fort and in every attempt to take it from us they failed, in the end, the barbarian kings knew that this Gallia was a different one from the one of years ago, this time, Gallia was a strong unified kingdom, and they weren't going to take us now, they gave up the siege on the fort and left back to their own lands. I can't really explain how we held the fort for such a long time, perhaps one of those miracles again, but at least now Gallia was safe. They named the fort after that day in my memory, but I didn't had time to celebrate, I had to go back to my master since I had finished my job, I put the son of one of the last kings as the ruler, and so he ruled as the new king. After that I came back to my master and he gave me this new job."

"What job?"

"Of teaching those that doesn't know of their power and heritage."

"Hmm… I see… was that the case of Lyria?" I asked him.

"Actually, it wasn't. You see, one day as I was meditating in the temple I heard someone crying outside, when I looked around there was a little baby, wrapped around a piece of silk and crying of thirsty. I turned around to see if there was anyone but I couldn't find anyone. It was up to me to take care of her, and since that day she's living here with me. I had no idea she was a guardian, until a certain day…"

**Flash back**

"_**Lyria be careful, you might fall if you don't look where you're going." Oscar said to Lyria.**_

"_**I'm okay master look- Ohh!" Lyria trips on a small rock.**_

_**Oscar sees as she is about to hit her face in a bigger rock that's right in front of her, he was going to catch her but he saw something strange, the dark flames raising from her body, in a reaction to the situation, Lyria punches the rock with her fist, enveloped in flames, the rock is completely destroyed into pieces.**_

"_**W- what's happening to me master?" Lyria asks with a confused expression on her face.**_

**End of Flash Back.**

"And so I began training her so she could control her own flames."

Oscar looked at the skies and smoke from his pipe again.

"Neroh, would you make me a favor once your training is done?" He said.

"Yes? What would that be?" I asked him.

"Well, I would like you to take Lyria with you and the others."

That kind of surprised me, I mean, Lyria was pretty much the only company he had in that inhospitable place in the middle of the desert.

"Why?"

"Well, she was always a cheerful and happy girl, but in the last years, she became who you see today, she doesn't show a single expression, not even a single smile. I believe I'm the one to fault."

"What do you mean?"

"She was always a happy child, but she has no friends around here and didn't had a proper childhood, since her training started way to early than expected, she had to train a lot to control her flames, and didn't had enough time to play and have fun…"

He stopped for a moment.

"That's why I wanted you to take her with you, so she could know what it means to have a friend and she could go back the way she was again, happy and cheerful…"

"Well, since you're teaching me, I guess this mean you're my new master, doesn't it? I think that's mean I have to complete my own jobs than."

We looked at each other and let out a friendly laugh, after some seconds I heard a transmission coming in the radio.

"…_Come in! I repeat, we're being attacked by an unknown force, they are more than we expected, we need someone's help, the Army, the Militia, anyone that Is nearby and that can help us! I repea-." _The transmission was cut off.

I recognized the voice on the radio, it was one of the youngsters of the warpack.

"I need to go! If I don't get there in time they might get killed!" I said.

"Wait!" Oscar said.

He got up from the ground, looked at me and said:

"I'll go with you."


	30. Chapter 29: Determination

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 29: Determination

As we run to the battlefield I could hear the sound of my companions being killed by explosions from enemy artillery, I ran as fast as I could, and so did Oscar. When we arrived at the battlefield we saw many injured from the side of the warpack, and the bandits that were attacking seemed to be non-stoppable, it looked as if when one of them falls two others appeared to replace him.

I saw Mannar and Luna patching up some wounded soldiers behind a barricade made of some sandbags and the tanks of the warpack, I ran to their direction.

"Mannar, Luna! How's the situation?" I asked them.

"Not very good, we didn't even saw were they came from." Mannar said.

"We're almost out of ammo, the only ones that are keeping them off from charging in with full force are our cannons and the machineguns on the tanks." Luna said.

"And what about the others?" I asked.

"They are trying their best to hold off their hordes, one shot, one kill priority, but we heard from the radio that Nanah's squad was pinned down by some bandits, Nazir and his squad was there to help them, but I don't know how much longer they can hold them off!" Luna said.

"What?!" I didn't know what to do now, the situation seemed pretty hopeless.

As I was thinking about what to do I saw Lyria coming from the opposite side of the barricade, carrying one of wounded soldiers of the warpack.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Don't worry, I told her to follow you in case you needed any help." Oscar said.

"Well than, can't you do anything?" I asked her.

She nodded her head in a negative way.

"In the state that I am at the moment I can't, I'm using all my power to run forwards and backwards, bringing back this wounded soldiers." She said, whit a face without expression again.

I was having trouble to think of a solution to this problem, and at the moment, not a single idea appeared in my mind.

"Are you sure you can't do nothing?" Oscar asked Lyria.

She nodded her head negatively again.

"Well, looks like you have a big problem here, I'll make you a favor and get rid of them to you." Oscar said, with tranquility in his eyes.

"What?" I said.

"Don't worry, it won't take too much time." He answered as he jumps over the sand bags.

He takes a running start and then started to run like no living being I ever saw before, running even faster than the army's jeeps, which were very fast. As he runs he passes through many bandits that were running into our direction without a single bullet or knife wound, he stops at their middle, I think he was trying to get their attention, and it worked. As they turned around to charge at him he pulled a Falchion, with the blade encrusted with dark stones that shine as the sun light touches them. He extended his arm before him, with the blade pointing to the ground, I could see his lips and then dark flames covered his entire body, but his flames seemed more powerful than mine or Lyria's ones, they seemed brighter and five times bigger than my own, it covered and area of about one meter around him, meaning that even if someone was to hurt him they would need to pass through the flames first and stay alive until they could even put a finger on him.

As he finally stops talking he holds the sword with both hands. Still pointing at the ground, and drills the earth with it, in a matter of seconds the flames that were around him now seemed to be absorbed into the Falchion. Suddenly, the ground around him starts to brake and the flames rose from the ground, but they did not burned the bandits that were in their reach, it did not hurt them physically, but it sure did something. When the flames finally calmed down I could see terror in the enemy's eyes, they ran for their lives as if something worst was to come.

As they flee I run to find where Nazir and Nanah are. As I ran through the battlefield I saw dismembered soldiers crying in pain, and many lifeless bodies. Right after a few meters I found Nazir, lying on the ground with his hand pressuring on a deep bullet wound.

"Nazir! Are you alright?" I asked him.

"Yes, nothing but a scratch, I'll be fine." He answered.

"Do you know where Nanah is?"

"She was with a squad ahead of mine, when we came close enough it was hell, we had to fight our way through the waves of enemies to identify the soldiers, I wasn't able to find her…"

As he said those words my heart starts to race.

"Nanah!" I shouted as I ran passed by soldiers that were helping carrying the wounded back to the safe zone and others that were crying for their friends that had fallen.

"Nana-?!" I stopped shouting as I saw her, she was lying on the ground with her head surrounded by a small bloodstain on the ground, her body seemed pale and she seemed lifeless. I started to lost hope.

***cough!***

As I hear the cough I lifted my head and saw that she was still alive, but coughing blood, she struggled to breath. As fast as I could I took her on my arms and ran back to the safe zone to make sure she was going to be okay.

Two hours later Mannar came out of the tent she was placed in.

"How's she?" I asked him.

"The injuries she received during the battle could have killed her if you didn't have come to bring her back in time. She's going to be fine now, she just need some rest." He answered.

Even though I was glad that she was okay now I was still feeling bad for not being able to do anything.

"Hey, do not blame yourself so much, if it wasn't for you she could've be dead right now, you saved her, be proud." As he says that he gives me a little pet in the sholder, and I let out a crooked smile.

"I need to go now, I'm going to check on the others."

After he went away I entered in the tent and I saw Nanah, resting on the bed, she seemed so peaceful. I sat on a bench that was next to her, and held her hand.

"_I'm so sorry, if I was here with you all, maybe it might have been different._" I Whispered.

At that moment Zanna entered the tent.

"You don't have to blame yourself big brother, there was nothing you could do." She said.

"Zanna…"

"And also, it was because of you that she charged into the battle."

"What?"

"She heard from the soldiers that were coming back how the situation was and she decided to lead a charge with most of the soldiers."

"But why?" I asked.

"Because we all believe in you, Neroh, she said that we needed to hold them back so you could have time to finish your training. All of them have learned to have hope and to be courageous in desperate times because of you."

I stopped for a moment as I saw Nanah's face, and how she looked so peaceful.

"We all believe in you brother, and we will continue to fight as long as you lead us!" She said with such conviction.

I got up and walked out of the tent.

"Brother?" Zanna asked.

"If you all had so much effort just to make sure I could finish my training, then I'm not going to fail with you guys either, I'm going to finish my training and when I'm done, were going to kick those bandit's asses back to the Empire!" I said.

"That's the way brother!" Zanna smiled.


	31. Chapter 30: Discouragement

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 30: Discouragement

I'm now concentrating in my training to control my flames, Master Oscar showed me yesterday a way to control my flames and make them take form.

**Flashback**

"_Pay attention now." Said Master Oscar as he sits down and concentrate._

"_Okay." I answered._

"_To be able to control the flames you must accept it as a part of you, you must be in piece with yourself and must remember that you are your flames master, and not the other way. Open your mind, visualize it taking form and control it as it flows around your body, mind and soul." Said Master Oscar._

_As he said that I could see that his flames were moving in a strange way, they started to form rings around him, and when I finally noticed, I could see that there were snakes made of the flames, and they acted as Master Oscar wished them to, and when he was satisfied they vanished. I had no words for how impressive it was._

"_Start training with this method tomorrow, as soon as you wake up." _

"_Yes Master." I answered._

"_Oh, one more thing." Master Oscar said._

_He turned around._

"_There is one more thing you must use to be able to control the flames, I believe I might have told you about it, but just to be sure, I'll tell you again."_

"_What is it Master?" _

"_A reason. Remember the reason for why you want to acquire control over your flames, put it deep with your feelings and remember it…"_

**End of Flashback**

In his words it seemed easy, but as I found out when I started, it's not. When I try to find silence in my mind to concentrate in the flames, I'm always interrupted by the sounds of my surroundings, whether it is the sibilant whistle created by the wind passing through some holes in the rocks of the desert or the soldiers in the camp nearby laughing as they tell jokes and life stories while playing cards and drinking, I can't seem to concentrate it well enough. Somehow, Lyria saw that I was having trouble and came to assist me.

"You'll never find silence in mind as long as you try to stop the sounds around you." She said. "You have to connect yourselves with your surroundings to control the flames, otherwise, you'll be unable to do so." Even though she was just a kid she showed a advanced vocabulary sometimes.

"So, what do I have to do?" I asked her.

She looked at the horizon for some seconds and then she said:

"Think about something that calms you, something that makes you fell in peace with everything and everyone."

I thought for an instant and something came to my mind.

"Thanks, I'll try it." As I said that she went away.

One of the things that I remember about my mother was how well she used to sing. Before she put me in bed she used to sing to me, I still remember it. As I kept thinking about when she sang to me all the sounds around me started to slowly disappear, like if I was being taken to the deepest part of a cave and no matter how loud I tried to scream no one would ever find me, it was a little scary.

For some reason after that I started to remember other moments that I had with my mother. One time we were walking in a forest that was near our village and I saw a Gallian Lion, it was a bit small to a lion even though it was an adult, almost the size of a wolf. I asked my mother what was it and she told me, I was little scared of course, I was just a kid back then, but my mother said not to worry, she said that these lions only haunted in groups, so this one was probably a deserter, and it acted only like a carrion bird, eating only what was left of the dead.

At that moment my concentration was broken by the sound of a shot, I turned around and saw one of the brotherhood soldiers far away pointing a pistol at me, he looked shocked.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Other soldier that was playing cards in his group stood up.

"Are you crazy?! Why did you try to shoot the captain?" Another one of them stood up.

They all had their hands on their pistols that were on their waist, thinking he might be an assassin.

"No wait! Did you guys didn't see the Gallian Lion that was there?" He said.

"What Gallian Lion?" One of them questioned.

"The Gallian Lion that was right in front of him! But it was huge, three times bigger than a normal one, and it looked completely dark!"

A completely dark Gallian Lion? Could it be that my training was working? But if it was I was still not controlling the flames, all that I did was accidentally made the flames take form while I was remember things of my past.

"There is no such thing as a Gallian Lion the way you described it! Gallian Lions live on the forests on the borders of Gallia, and there is no way a Gallian Lion would get bigger than a small wolf." One of them that was still sitting on the ground and with his cards in one hand said.

"I'm not convinced" Said the one that raised first.

He grabbed the pistol and when he tried to pull it out a man with a turban that covered his whole face except for his eyes appeared and hold his arm before he could do anything.

"I think our friend had too much beer for today." He said, but I recognized him by the voice, so did the others.

"I think you're right lieutenant Nazir." The soldier with the pistol on his hand said.

"Yeah, it was probably that." The soldier that shot said.

And they put their guns away and started playing the game and telling jokes again, like nothing happened. Nazir came to where I was.

"So Nazir, how did the search go?" I asked him.

"We were unable to find their hideout Neroh, it's not easy to track them when there are sand storms cleaning their footsteps on the sand." He answered.

Nazir seemed quite angry, maybe he was angry with himself for not completing his mission.

"And… Do you know how she is?" He asked me, about Nanah of course.

"I went to her tent this morning and she's still resting." I answered.

"Don't worry, she'll be fine" Nazir said.

"I know…"

"And also, I might have taken a decision without telling you first."

"What is it?"

"I thought that being the bandits that they are they might attack again, and in greater numbers than before, so I contacted Richard by the radio to ask for reinforcements, sorry."

"No need to say that, you did right. So, what he said?"

"He said that the only warpack that it was in position to help us was Metal Pain, and perhaps Heaven Arms…"

"Well, we both know there is no way that Heaven Arms will come."

"I thought the same."

"So, we'll have to hope that Raphael and his man come before the imperial bandits attack again."

"Yes…"

"Well, I guess w have no other choice but to wait for one of them. In the meantime let's make sure that everybody gets entertained tonight." I cleaned the sand off my pants.

"Sir?"

"You can see that even though some of them are happy the camp has a low morale because of the battle yesterday, we need to cheer them up a little." I think it was already time to make them happy, you do not win wars with only soldiers and weapons, but a good humor as well, if the soldiers are too demoralized to fight, than the war I already lost.

We started the preparations for the party. I know I should be training to contain the flames but, this flames… this secret has being living in me since I was born, if it can wait 18 years to wake, than they can wait some more time to be trained.

As the preparations go on little Lyria starts to run around all day, looking at what every single person is doing, not understanding the meaning of all of the preparations but still, fascinated by all the things she sees. Zanna tries to calm her down and explain to her why we're having this party, but it's almost impossible since Lyria simply won't stop making question, you can see her eyes shining with all the commotion she was carrying in her heart, and to be honest, that was the first time I ever saw she expressing her feelings, it might be strange, but I think I almost saw she letting out what appeared to be a small smile.

Some of the soldiers were working on a guitar, they planned to give to me as a gift after the war was over and we had won, but they saw that this occasion was better than to wait for the whole war to be ended. As I started to tune the guitar I can see someone running through the others that are carrying food and preparing everything, almost bumping into all of them, it was Zanna.

"Neroh! Brother!" She was almost out of breath.

"Calm down Zanna, take your time. Now what is it?" I asked her as she finally came down and breathed some fresh air in her lungs.

"It's… it's Nanah! She's awake!"

That was the best news that I received for all day long. I ran right behind her, to reach Nanah's tent in a rush. When I got there I saw everyone, Mannar and Luna were checking on her to make sure she was okay, Lokky had just appeared, he got out of the tanks as fast as he knew she was awake and Zig was jumping around in happiness to know she was fine while Nazir tried to contain him before he broke anything inside the tent. Nanah was laughing about the situation, she was with a beautiful smile, her skin was a lot more colored than before, she acted as if nothing had happened, like she didn't knew why she was there, even though she did.

I stepped in and everyone noticed.

"Well, we better check on the other injured." Said Mannar as he left with Luna.

" I better get back and help the others!" Zanna said and left.

"M- me too!" Said Loki as he followed Zanna.

"C'mon now, we need to help in the preparations too." Said Nazir as he drags Zig with him.

"But I don't want to go! I'm lazy right now." Zig complained.

As Nazir passes by me while dragging Zig he whispers:

"_She's all yours tiger!" _And he lets out a small laugh.

I sit next to her in a bench near her bed.

"So… I heard everyone is working hard to prepare a party right now." She said to me.

"Yeah…"

"I bet it's going to be really fun!" She says, cheerful.

I said nothing.

"Neroh, what's wrong?" She asked me as she leans forward in my direction, trying to look me in the eyes while I was facing down. The expression on her face clearly showed how worried she was.

"Nanah…" I said.

Another couple of silent seconds filled the room.

"Sorry." I said.

"Hun? Why?" She asked me.

"For not being able to protect you when they attacked, for not being able to appear earlier, for not being able to save everyone, for not being able to be a good comm-" She covered my mouth with her hand.

"Don't." She said.

She was looking at me right in the eyes, she uncovered my mouth.

"Neroh, you had being a great commander so far, every time we were in a situation that it seemed impossible to win you found some way to victory, or at least a way that we could escape and survive. Every day you check on us all and make sure that we are okay. We know what is going to happen if you don't learn how to control the flames, we care about you as well so… If you need our help, we'll help you! No matter what the risks are, so don't worry okay, it was not your fault. It was a decision that I made, and I was eager to go on, no matter how danger it looked."

She grabbed my hand.

"In all those hard time we believed in you Neroh, so please, believe in us too." She said.

Her words made the weight of my preoccupations lift from my heart.

"Okay, I'll believe in you all" I smiled to her.

In the middle of our exchange of looks we slowly leaned forward to each other, our lips slowly moved making our mouths to open a little. As we get close to each other our eyes started to slowly close, Nanah's eyes looked sensual and seductive. And then we kissed.

The seconds in that small time when our lips touched each other felt like hours, once again I tasted the sweet kiss from that beloved person that has gained my heart and protection.

Once we stopped I opened my eyes and saw her cheerful smile, that lifted my spirits up.

"So, you better rest for now." I said.

"No, I'm going to help as well."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I said there is no need to worry, I just need a little help to get up."

When the preparations were finished we started the party, it is good to see everyone happy for such a long time, people drink and dance and sing, their having fun like they never did before, even I was quite happy when I started to play the guitar, I even managed to see Lyria's first smile there, it seemed that everyone was pleased with the idea.

Hours later everyone was going to sleep, they all got exhausted, even when they seemed so tired they still had a smile in their faces, it was good that everyone had their moral back up high.

In the next morning I was waked up by the shouting of the soldiers, they were getting prepared to enter in action. I see Nazir running around with a crate of ammunition.

"Hey! What's going on?" I shouted to him.

"The bandits came back with more forces than before! Their right there." He pointed.

I equipped myself as fast as I could and followed him. We climbed a rock that was quite big near the temple and when we got to the top we saw a huge horde of bandits, using rifles, spears, swords and knifes. Going on foot or riding a horse, there was a lot of them.

"What about Master Oscar?" I asked Nazir.

"He couldn't be found anywhere, I asked for Lyria to look for him and bring him back as fast as she could." He replied.

Great, the situation was nothing good, as we prepared to defend ourselves I was hoping, hoping that Metal Pain would get here faster, hoping that Lyria could find Master Oscar and bring him back as fast as possible and hoping… for my training not to have being a waste of time, because with this force coming to us, I was going to use everything I learned.


	32. Chapter 31: Coming back home

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 31: Coming back home

We marched to the battlefield as fast as we could. When we got there our troops had set a line of barricades using sandbags, and had the time to construct some improvised pill boxes, using sandbags and planks of wood. It didn't serve to protect them from bullets, but to prevent the enemy from seen were they were inside and shooting it. The inside was dark enough that they could not see the location of where the soldier handing the machine gun was. The only thing it could be seen was the tip of the machine gun as it moves to both sides out of the box, killing any bandits that rush to it.

The tanks were giving suppressing fire to the troops that charged ahead, trying to reach the enemy location and disband their forces, but it was in vain. Just like us the bandits had artillery suppressing our soldiers. If we were going to win this battle those artillery guns would need to be destroyed, only then could our forces charge the bandits camp and make them run away.

As I was thinking of a plan I saw Nazir coming in my direction.

"Hey, got any news?" I asked him.

"Yes. Their 75 mm artillery guns." He answered.

"This is bad. We can't keep sending our comrades to the enemy, we'll only keeping losing more and more soldiers!"

"I also found something we could use."

"What is it?"

Nazir unfolded a map he had with him on his waist. He putted on a flat rock near to where we were. He pointed at a section of canyons near our position. It seemed it goes all the way to the other side of the battlefield, right behind the bandit's camp.

"Some of my guys found a passage in those canyons that would take us straight at the enemy's camp. We can hit them hard and fast behind their own lines and destroy their 75 mm guns."

"But we can't underestimate them. They could have seen that path as well. What if we get ambushed while following this path?"

"I could order some of the ghost soldiers to scout us through. They would go above us, looking for any snipers that might be around."

I was not really sure of that plan, but as I saw Mannar and Luna with others that helped them, passing by me carrying comrades bleeding to death I could not stand still with my arms crossed doing nothing! We couldn't wait any longer, we had chance to fight back, and we were going to take it!

"Alright, prepare your man! Were going as soon as possible!"

"Yes sir!"

Me, Nazir and other six men that I chose by finger, believing that they are more experienced headed to the enemy camp via the canyon paths. At the top eight ghost soldiers scouted ahead, watching for any sniper that may be in the way. Snipers were not the biggest of our worries right now. That canyon path is a deadly trap filled with poisonous snakes and scorpions and even following the map we lost ourselves always ending up in a dead end. In the end there were no snipers around the area, perhaps the enemy never knew about this path. Once we got out of there we could see the enemy camp. It was right below us.

"Look! I can see their artillery guns!" Nazir said.

"The only problem is how we'll get close to them?" I said.

The camp was strongly guarded, everywhere you look you could see a soldier, and there were not too many covers that we could use to sneak around.

"I think I had an idea! See those two down there?" Nazis pointed at two bandits that were near a tent near the cliff that we were standing on.

"I think I got what you're saying, but we'll still need to take the bandits guarding the artillery guns."

"The ghost soldiers can give us cover, and if anything goes wrong the soldiers that you brought with you can give us suppressing fire"

"Alright! I'm ready when you are."

We both started climbing down the cliff, grabbing to any edge that our fingers and feet could get into. When we got down we hide in the tent near the two soldiers and waited for a patrol to pass. The two soldiers had long scarves covering their faces to protect them from the sandstorms. If we could get our hands on their clothes they wouldn't be able to recognize us as darcsens and we could get close to those artillery guns and destroy them. After the patrol had passed we attacked our targets. I grabbed one of the bandits and sliced his throat with my knife while Nazir did the same. We changed our uniforms with the clothes of the enemy as fast as we could.

We were nervous about the plan. The possibilities of the plan failing passed through my mind countless time as we calmly walked towards the artillery guns. When we were getting close two bandits approached us.

"Halt!" One of them shouted.

"Shouldn't you two be guarding the captain's tent?" The other one said.

I tried to remain calm as best as I could, but I started to sweat under the scarf.

"Answer me!" The bandit shouted.

Nazir lifted his left hand and with a signal of his index and middle finger both of the bandits fell dead on the ground. Two arrows had hit them right after that signal. A good thing that the ghost soldiers were trained well in the art of the bow. I was worried for a second that the other bandits handling the artillery guns would had noticed, but they were too busy, trying to kill our comrades. We got close to one of the artillery guns and without a second thought, killed the bandits that were using it. We killed them silently so we wouldn't attract any attention to us, but unfortunately, we failed.

"Intruders!"

One of the bandits that were handling the artillery gun to the far west of the camp saw us. They immediately opened fire against us and we protected ourselves by hiding behind the artillery gun. The soldiers that were waiting to attack at the cliff made rain bullets on those bandits. The plan would have gone well if it wasn't for a small group of bandits that were coming back from the battlefield. Even though they were wounded they picked up their weapons and started to fight at the ghost soldiers and the others that were on the cliffs.

"Damn! What are we going to do now?" Nazir asked.

"Hang on! I'll try something."

Behind that artillery gun, taking cover from enemy fire, I sit down and started to concentrate. Just like in my training, I tried to remember that sensation that I felt before, and in a few seconds there it was! A giant Gallian Lion, completely made out of dark flames. The bandits were terrified, they tried shooting down the giant beast, but once their bullets hit the flames they were pulverized. When I ordered the flames to charge the lion ran towards the bandits that ran away throwing their weapons at the ground. After they got out of my sight I ordered the flames to go away and slowly, the creature started to disappear, like sand to the wind.

"Now! Quickly! Before they come back with reinforcements! Let's use this gun to destroy the others and cause some confusion to the bandits on the battlefield." I said.

Nazir and I, with the help of the soldiers that were on top of the cliff and came down, turned the heavy artillery weapon in the direction of the next one. After it was destroyed we continued to do the same until nine of the ten artillery weapons were destroyed.

"This one is the last one I think." Nazir said.

"Let's just arm the bomb and get out of here."

I planted the bomb on the last artillery gun and set to explode in ten minutes. We got the hell out of there as fast as we could. We couldn't come back by the way we came. It was easy to get down, but with the weight of all of our equipments there was no way we could climb up. The ghost soldiers got back since they were on top of the canyon. For us there was only the battlefield.

We charged across the battlefield, trying to get back to our own camp. Bandits passed by us, they didn't care to attack us. They were too scared, retreating from our tanks artillery, which was actually giving a problem to us as well. It wasn't a big problem for too long, once we figured out the pattern to were the shots were falling we managed to get back to the camp. Once we approached I could hear Zig shouting.

"Stop shooting! It's our captain!"

I saw Nanah, Zanna and Lenna running towards us.

"What happened? Why did you guys came this way?" Zanna asked.

"We had no other choice, the way back was inaccessible." I said.

"Nazir! Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Lenna said, worried about him.

"I'm fine, don't worry so much." Nazir answered, petting her head.

She smiled back.

"Well, at least it's over now." Nanah said.

"Yeah." I said.

I thought that we were safe for now. The bandits wouldn't dare to attack us without artillery guns, and it would take them sometime before they could get their hands on new ones.

"Look there!" A soldier that was on top of one of the tanks said.

He was pointing at the opposing direction, the direction were the enemy camp was. Right there, in the distance, there was a huge black colored tank coming in our direction. It had an unknown symbol on it, but we knew that he was an enemy tank, the first thing that he did when he saw our position was to fire, it almost hit a group of our troops.

"Run! Retreat!" I shouted.

We all started to fall back while our tanks were coming in reverse and shooting the unknown tank. It did nothing but to give some scratches on its armor. A monstrous class S tank. It was sure to me that this was not a war machine that the bandits could have get their hands own, not even the Empire would give such a machine to the bandits, no. This was for sure a captain of the Empire.

"Neroh! What are we going to do?" Zanna asked me while we ran.

"Don't worry! Me and Nazir had a plan if things didn't get well as expected."

Right were our line of defense was there were a lot of explosives under it. They were buried there in case the bandits passed our defenses. Lokky was in one of the tanks, hidden, far in the back.

"Nazir! Give me the radio!"

Nazir throws the radio to me.

"Lokky! Change of plans! There is a tank coming to us! It can't be stopped by our cannons! Once he is on place, blow him up!" I said.

"Roger that sir!" Lokky answered.

And so he waited. Once the Tank got right on were the explosives were Lokky came out with the tank. He turned the cannon to fire. In that time the other tank shoot. It hits near him, almost made the tank flip over. He finally targeted the explosives and fired.

The sand goes up and the dust from the rocks covers everything. When it got down we could see the upper part of the tank, and it was perfect. We didn't knew what he was going to do now, but whatever it was we were going to continue to run. After some seconds I noticed something. He was not chasing us! He was firing a couple of rounds, but he was dead still, right there. When the lower part was reveled I could see that the wheels were completely destroyed. Thanks to that we were able to flee, back to the temple.

When we arrived there I could see Master Oscar and Lyria.

"So, you finally appeared! Where have you been?" I asked him.

"Sorry, but that is something I can't reveal, to anyone…" He answered.

He seemed full of secrets most of times.

"Do you have a plan for what you're going to do now?" He asked me.

"This place is no longer safe for us now. A new tank appeared, which means that there could be others, I'm sorry, but I'll have to finish training later."

"That is not a problem. Lyria, I want you to go with them."

"Hun?! W- why?" Lyria was surprised and confused.

Master Oscar kneeled and said:

"Lyria, I want you to have a happy life, with friends that you can have fun with. I don't want you to pass all your live here in the middle of nowhere were you won't have any communication with others."

"B-but I don't want to go! I want to stay with you master!" That's the first time I've seen Lyria crying.

"Lyeia, I want you to have a better life than to live with an old man in the desert, besides, Neroh will need your help to complete his training. What do you think?"

Lyria fought for a couple of seconds.

"Alright! I'll do it! But just because master says so." She said.

"Good girl! That's the spirit!" Master Oscar patted her on the head.

Even though she seemed serious I could see that she was holding back not to cry.

Three hours later we were ready to go. We finished loading our equipments and supplies on our trucks.

"Are you ready, Lyria?" I asked her.

She was sitting on the ground against the temple's outside wall. She nodded her head in affirmation. She got up and followed me, but before I could leave Master Oscar said he had something to give me. I saw him coming out of the temple with a type of sheet, wrapped around something.

"Here, take this." He gave the sheet to me.

As I took off the sheet I could see what was under it. A strange sword, filled with runes on the sides of the blades.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It belong it to one of my best students." He said.

"But why are you giving it to me?"

"Because… It belonged to your father."

I was shocked. Even after all the things that I learned, about who I am, about how much time our kind exists, the most shocking thing was to know that my father was a guardian. And for an instant, the dots started to connect.

"How did you thought that I knew about you?" He said to me.

"So… he was a guardian too hun?"

"Yes, one of the best. He also said to me to give you this."

He handed a small notebook.

"What is it?"

"Some sort of journal. There he noted every single part of his training, and the things that happened to him after."

"Thank you."

"Don't worry about it… Are you going already?"

"Yes, everything is packed up and we are all set to go."

"You better be careful, I fell a storm approaching."

"Thank you again master, for everything."

He approached me and said:

"I did only what was my purpose, now it is up to you to find your purpose to use that power."

We shook hands and I turned to go when I saw Lyria running by me to Master Oscar's direction.

"Ha! Lyria! Are you all set to go?" He asked.

She nodded her head in affirmation.

"Good! Now be careful out there alright? Make sure you make lots of friends and visit lots of places, okay?"

She nodded her head again. She turned around and started walking to my direction. She stopped. Turned around running and gave hug on Master Oscar. You could see her tears on the air when she was running.

"Thank you." She said in a really low voice, it was quite hard even for me to understand what she said.

"Your welcome." Master Oscar said, and hugged her for the last time.

We're now in our way to the War House. Some minutes ago Lyria was waving for her master, seeing him for the last time, it must be pretty sad for her. She's on the back of a truck now, with all of us, quite there, not changing her expression as ever. I set by her side.

"Your alright there Lyria?" I asked her.

"Yes…" She answered.

"Then why are you so down?"

"Because..." She started to cry.

"Hmm?"

"Master was everything I had… Since I was a little baby he took care of me and taught me everything I needed to know. Now that I'm always from him, I'm certain I'll be alone…"

"What are you talking about?"

"Hun?" She looked to me, with tears still running down her cheeks.

"You now, Master Oscar might be away from you now, but it doesn't mean that you're going to be alone. We're here for you now." I said to her.

"That's right Lyria! We're your friends and you shouldn't worry! We'll never leave you!" Nanah said to her.

"That's right, you can thrust on us!" Zanna said.

"Yeah! We can be like sisters if you want to!" Lenna said.

"And if anyone threatens you we'll protect you." Nazir said.

She looked to the others and they showed her their friendly and happy smiles.

"Welcome to the family Lyria." I said to her.

"Everyone… Thank you!"


	33. Chapter 32: The predator

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 32: The predator

The truck shakes a lot trying not to get stuck on the mud in the middle of the road, and the weather doesn't help either. It has been raining a lot lately, for three days straight. The weather is making even harder for us to continue our journey back to the War House. On the first day we got two of our tanks and all of our trucks stuck in the mud, it took four hours before we could get them free and lately in the middle of the road there were trees that felt down from lighting strikes. One after another we had to stop to pick them out of the way. Even though everyone was upset about the situation at least one of us seemed happy. Lyria. Every day that passes she learns about a new world that she had never seen before, every new plant and animal, every new weather and places. She seemed amazed.

After a couple more days traveling we had to make a stop. I got out of the truck that was far behind to check what it was. I walked to the front of the line, struggling not to get my boots stuck on the mud that made me fall deeper every single step.

"Hey! What's going on h-" I tried to finish but I was surprised.

Some meters after one of our tanks there it was, a huge and deep river, with a strong flowing.

"I don't remember this river." I said.

"That's because it wasn't here when we came by this way." Said Nazir that was right at my side now.

"How did this happened?" Lokky said, getting out of the first tank.

"It might be because of the rain." Nazir said.

"How much time before we can cross again?"

"As long as it is raining the river will still be here, the only thing we can do is to wait or to take another road, It would take much more time to go back, I think weeks."

"Brother! What's going on?" Zanna and the others appeared.

"A river was formed here because of the rain. It looks like we'll have to wait until the rain stops."

"But still, we can't just stay here. We have to find somewhere more safe." Nanah said.

"I think there is a village nearby." Mannar said.

"Where?" I asked.

"To east of here." He answered.

"Okay than, we'll march there than."

For a couple of hours we marched, trying to save the trucks and the tanks out of the mud every time they got stuck. When we arrived to that village people seemed strange, looking at us with doubt in their eyes, they seemed scared.

An elder man came near us.

"Who are you people?" He asked.

"I'm Neroh, commander of the Darcsen Brotherhood Warpack. Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you." Isaid to him.

The man holds his chin with one hand, thinking.

"I know you must be telling the truth, you look sincere. But in the last few days things have happened around here. My name is Alamar, I'm the leader of this village."

"What happened?" Nazir asked.

"A few days ago strange things have happened. People have gone missing and crying can be heard on the woods." Alamar answered.

"You think it could be someone from outside?" I asked him.

"Everyone in this village knows each other and are friendly, there would be no reason to do anything against each other. But tell me, why are you here?"

"We were going back to our General Quarters but we're stopped by a river that was formed after the rain. We need somewhere to stay until the rain stops."

"Well, we have little to offer, but you would be welcome to stay if you would help us solve this mystery."

"No problem to me. Don't worry, we'll camp just outside the village."

The elder of the village let us camp near his village as long as we accepted to help him investigate the disappearance of the village folks and the strange crying on the woods. The investigation itself was going nowhere. Everyone seemed to have no problem with anyone, it was just like Alamar said. Everyone here was very friendly.

When night came I was still thinking on my tent. Trying to understand what was going on when Nanah came in.

"Hey there!" I said to her.

"You're still troubled about this whole thing aren't you?" She said.

"Yeah, it's driving me crazy actually."

"Well, at least we can discard the possibility of an animal." She showed me a picture.

"A footprint?"

"One of the villagers said that he had taken this photo when they were trying to find the missing people. He said that the thing had taken his daughter."

"Do you know how old she was?"

"He said she was about ten years old, why?"

"Look at it, the size of it doesn't match, it looks like an adult, and it doesn't look like it was human either."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at the shape of it, do you see?" I pointed to the strange nail marks it had left with the footprint.

"What kind of person has nails like this? They look like wolf nails…"

"I know, at least we can also discard the fact that it's human. Let's make a patrol tonight on the borders of the village and see if we can find something."

It was almost dawn now and everyone is taking turns to keep up with the patrol. When from out of the woods a little girl came running. We tried to calm her but all she did was scream. We later found out that she was the daughter of the man who gave us the picture. The next morning she was calmer, but when we asked about what happened to her or who took her she said nothing, she was still in shock. I can't blame her either, after all that she has passed and being a child even I would be scared.

"So?" Nazir asked me as I got out of the man's house.

"She won't talk, she's still to afraid.

"Well, this sure will make things difficult."

"Okay, let's just think for a minute. What have you found out so far?"

"All the victims that have been kidnapped were about the ages of ten and twelve. Six have been kidnapped and only two came back counting with her."

"We're going to need more than that to understand what's going on."

Mannar came out of the house. He was examining the girl to see if she was okay.

"How's she?" I asked.

"She has some injuries on her feet. I think she's not used to walk barefoot, especially when she stays for a long time on the woods. She's still pretty traumatized, but that'll pass."

"And apart from that did you notice anything else?" Nazir said.

" Yes, I actually did. Apart from her injuries and the trauma she seemed well treated for someone that was being held captive. She has no sign of dehydration and seemed well fed. Not even her hair is messed up."

"So, does that mean that the thing that kidnapped her was looking out for her?" I asked him

"It was, and it was doing it as if it was her own daughter." Mannar said.

"Well, at least we know that it has a reason to kidnap, but we still don't know what it is. We need to lure it in." Nazir said.

"And I've got an idea." I said.

Night time came again, and our plan was on progress. The trap was set and we're all waiting for the right time to strike. Our bait was there, walking on the borders of the village, near the forest. When it turned around we could see the thing on the distance, calmly and slowly walking, trying to avoid making any sound at all. We could see it, but not well enough since it was night time. It tries to reach the bait with it thin and skeletal arms.

Before he can touch the bait, it turns around to the thing and shoots at its head. The bait take off the hat and it was revealed that it was Zig. He was the only one that was small enough to look like a twelve year old girl. It sure was a struggle to convince him to get in that dress, but we did it at the end. When the thing was down we instantly moved to him.

"Nice job! You got it right on the head." Nazir said to Zig.

When I approached I could see it better, it seemed like nothing I've ever saw before. The skin seemed very rigid and it seemed as if it was in decomposition, the elbows and the knees were very visible due to the fact that it looked malnourished, the skin seemed to have lost its original color, it basically seemed like a corpse. But the thing that interested me was the fact that the nails and the hands looked different from human ones, they seemed bigger, muscular and stronger. I tried to take a look at the things face and it was completely distorted, I could see yes, and a mouth, but the nose and ears were not there, on the place of the nose there was only an open hole that showed the meat inside. A truly disgusting sight.

I turned my attention to Zig.

"Nice work! At least now this thing won't be taking anymore girls away from their homes."

"Great! Now, can I take this stupid dress of?" He seemed pretty mad.

Everyone started to laugh, distracted by how mad Zig was. We thought that it had ended there, but I was wrong.

"What out!" Lyria shouted.

I ducked at the right time, it almost got my head. When I looked behind there it was, that thing was still alive. The things claws, sharp as a knife, almost got me, It would had probably cut my head off if I didn't had dodged it.

"Fire!" I shouted.

We started to fire at the thing. Every single shot seemed like a horse kick on the chest of that thing, but no matter how many shots we fired, it falls down and then it got up. When I understood that bullets wouldn't work Lyria and I prepared ourselves, I pulled the sword that belonged to my father and Lyria pulled off her dagger. I concentrated and the flames started to rise. We both charged at it, I tried a big swing coming from above, but I missed. For a creature with such rigid skin and muscles it was really fast. Lyria tried getting it from behind but it ducked and tried countering her, she dodged just as fast. Now we charged from both sides, this time the thing didn't had time to run, it tried to defend itself with her long claws, but they broke when the sword and the dagger came in contact with them. The blade of my sword stabs him under its thorax and Lyria's dagger stabs its shoulder. The flames burned the thing and suddenly it almost instantly entered in combustion. Burning as a big dark blue flame, it started to run away, screaming with a high pitch frequency, it was so strong that I almost passed out.

"Get after it! Don't let it get away!" I shouted.

We chased the thing for some minutes until we got him cornered on a cliff. It looked at me with one of the eyes, the only one that wasn't burned and for a second It felt like it was almost human. My man shouted for it to stop, pointing their pistols at it, but what it did after was unexpected to all of us. It simply crossed his harms, turned his back to the cliff and let himself go, it did not even jump, it simply throws itself to the cliff. I went to the point of the cliff to see If it was alive or not. On the bottom there was a river right there, it might still be alive and we needed to continue the hunt.

"Commander! We found footprints of the thing! It leas north of here!"

As much as I wished to continue chasing that thing I needed to know where it was its lair, we might learn more about it if we know how it lives. At the end of the trail there was a wooden wall, closing the entrance to a cave. There was only a small opening at the left lower corner of the wall, hidden so others couldn't enter. When I entered there it was pitch black. I turned my flashlight on and against a wall, scared to death there were the rest of the girls that were kidnapped.

"Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you, we came here to take you back to your parents." I said to them.

One of them shaking in fear nodded negatively with her head and said:

"No! I- if we go out he'll get us again! H- he will take us back here and get mad at us."

"You don't have to be afraid of him anymore okay. I took care of him, he'll never be able to take you girls away never again. C'mon now, your parents are waiting for you to come back." I extended my hand to her.

At the first few seconds she was unsure, but after that she created courage enough to give me he hand, and the others followed her.

We took the girls back to the village, the parents were crying when they finally saw their daughters for the first time after the months they had disappeared.

At the very least we could solve this case. I'm still feeling bad though. I lied to that little girl, that thing could have survived, and the next day it could come back and try to capture them again. No other thought came to my head, at the moment the only thing I was focusing on was to find that thing and bring it down once and for all.

Two hours later one of my man came to me.

"Sir! We found it, near the river."

We went to where it was. It was with its back against a tree, near the river. Its mouth was opened, with his eyes looking to the skies, like as if it was watching the stars in its moment of death. Mannar got near it carefully to check if it was alive. The last time it was just tricking us.

"So?" Nazir asked.

"It's dead alright. It's not breathing and it doesn't have a pulse. I never knew something that lives after all that happened." Mannar answered.

"Well, just to be sure" I pulled my knife off.

I got near it and cut his throat and the blood flowed too slowly, it was dead not for a long time.

"What now?" Nazit asked.

"Now we'll bury it and get back to the village." I answered.

"Are you going to bury it? Do you think that it would be that much kind if it had killed you?" Mannar asked.

"I know it doesn't really make sense, but I think it was human before… whatever it happened to it."

"How do you know that?" Nazir asked me.

"I don't know, I just… Before it jumped off the cliff it looked at me and I just knew somehow…"

"Okay than, I'll help you. Hey! You there! Get two shovels." Nazir said to one of the soldiers.

We took sometime but we were able to bury it. I'm still troubled about the fact that it actually looked human for a second. Could be just my imagination or was it really someone that got through some kind of sick experience? I'm not sure.

When we arrived back at the village Alamar greeted us.

"Thank you for saving the girls and taking them back to the safety of their houses." He said.

"Don't worry, if you have any other problems, you can contact us at the War House. If you wish it, I can mark it on a map" I said.

"Thank you for your kindness, but I think we can manage form here on. And what about the thing? The one that kidnapped the girls?"

"It's dead, don't worry about it."

"Good! Once again, thank you for your help, we'll never forget what you did for us sir."

After that we went back to our camp and slept for the night. In the morning the sun was rising and the rain had stopped, it was time for us to move on. When we were about to leave a few man from the village volunteered themselves to join our warpack. I asked them if they knew what they were getting into and told them about the risks. They answered that it didn't mattered, they had a life debt to us and were ready to risk their lives for it. There sure are brave man living in this village. We accepted them and continue moving on.

We reached were the river was and now it was a nothing but a small stream of water, we managed to travel through those woods just fine, although I still had the feeling that dangerous eyes looked upon us.


	34. Chapter 33: Confronting the amazon

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 33: Confronting the amazon

After a more couple more days traveling on a dirt road and feeling like I'm going to throw up I could finally see it after a hill or two. The Warhouse, we're finally back home, and right on time too I couldn't wait to get off that truck, balancing here and there while driving on the roads.

"Hey there! Long time no see!" Frederic was shouting over the walls.

"Could you open the gates for us?" I shouted back.

"Okay! But put on some masks first."

"Why?"

"A strange disease has strike many inside the Wathouse, you better protect yourselves."

We improvised some masks with what cloths we could find and entered. The scenario is nothing beautiful, medics from all the warpacks are helping each other to save as many soldiers they can. While we marched through the camps of dead and sick I could see them suffering and the ones that helped them crying, feeling usless

"Mannar! Luna! Nazir! Help the others with the sick, the rest of you guys follow me!"

"Yes sir!" They answered.

Frederic was right at my side while we marched to Richard's camp.

"How did this happened?"

"We don't know yet. It started two days before you guys arrived, one of the soldiers passed out, when she woke up she started to have a high fever and vomiting a lot and then she started to cough blood, once that happened she lost her vision and her internal organs started to fail and she finally passed away."

"Who was patient zero?"

"One of the Colossal Amazons. We offered our medics to Bianca but she refused, she said her own female doctors can take care of it."

"This hate is going a little too far, what about the other warpacks?"

"Adrian took Heaven Arms to help a temple near here, he said that the priests and his followers were being held hostage by imperial forcesand the last time I saw Metal Pain they were going to help you, we haven't heard from Raphael since then."

"Is there a possibility that they any of their troops were infected?"

"Well, they did got out of here before is started, but since we don't know where the source of this disease is we can put that as a possibility"

At this point we were already at the front of Richard's tent. When we entered Richard was there taking care of one of his lieutenants.

"How's he doing?" I asked him.

"Oh! He's not getting better, one of the final symptoms might appear at any moment." He said.

He got up from the chair he was sitting and walked with us outside.

"I'm sorry for no giving you a proper welcome but-" I stopped him.

"It's alright. Can we help with anything?"

"Well, conventional medicine won't work so we could just as well try to find the source of this disease."

"Talking to patient zero could be a lot of help."

"She might still be alive, but with Bianca in command that would be difficult. She blames us, saying that it was a disease created from the dirt bodies of men."

"Okay, I think that's a little too much. Don't you think so?"

When Richard was going to answer his eyes were gone blank and he collapsed.

"Richard! Medic! Come quickly!" Frederic shouted.

"That's the first symptom right? We still got time." I walked away with the rest of my comrades.

"Were are you going?" Frederic asked.

"I'm going to talk to Bianca."

"She's won't listen to you."

"Well, I might as well make she listen than!"

We arrived at the Colossal Amazons camp and of all the camps we saw since we came back to the Warhouse this one was the one with the most number of corpses. When we arrived all the women that weren't sick or taking care of those that needed got up and made a wall in front of us.

"What do you want here?" One of them said, I think it was a lieutenant.

"I'm here to talk to your commander!" I said to her.

She pushed me back and laughed.

"Do you really think that our commander would talk to a man like yourself?"

They started to laugh and make jokes but not for too long, in the middle Bianca appeared, they all got serious.

"If you all have so much time to laugh then you all should use it to help the sick." Bianca said.

Once she said that all of her soldiers dispersed, helping the sick.

"What do you want?" She asked, with a tone of disrespect in her voice.

"I want to talk to patient zero." I said to her.

"Why?"

"I want to know how she got that bad."

"I know how she got bad, it's because of you men!"

"Stop this already!" I shouted at her.

"What?!" She asked. I could see how angry she looked.

"With this nonsense! How is it possible that this disease could be the fault of men?! For crying out loud! Even Richard has the symptoms now!"

I could see that she was clenching her fists. I took a deep breath and tried to think.

"Look, whatever have happened to you in the past it doesn't matter now. The only reason we are able to defend ourselves is because we are a unified force and if we start to hate each other this will only serve to disperse us even more! The only thing I'm trying to do here is to help the Warhouse and every warpack that are here, even yours. You can do whatever you want with me later, punch me, kick me, mock me, but for now let's try to work together and try to find a cure to this disease. So, what do you think?" I extended my hand towards her, expecting a hand shake.

By the look of her face I could also expect a punch coming right at my nose.


	35. Chapter 34: The doctor

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 34: The doctor

We are on the road again now. Strangely Bianca let us help her and let us talk to patient zero. When I spoke to her she said that two days before she was coming back to the Warhouse with the rest of her patrol unit she was thirsty but her canteen was empty. She found a small river near her area and drank the water. I'm pretty sure that would be a good clue to finding were this disease came from.

Bianca came with us of course, she still have that special attitude about her. Frederic and Andrea stayed behind with their warpacks, taking care of the sick, including Richard.

Once we reached the small river we decided to follow it. This disease couldn't simply appear out of nowhere infecting the soldiers of the Warhouse. This was no coincidence, of that I was sure.

The river took us to a dense forest. We had to continue without our tanks, only with our trucks as transport. We stopped to rest at the night.

In the next morning we continued to follow the river. At one moment Nazir stopped.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"Look." He pointed at the ground.

There were footprints on the muddy floor of the forest, and by the looks of it they were from imperial soldiers.

"What do you want to do?" Nazir asked.

"Let''s follow them, but be careful, I have the bad sensation that were being watched."

Ever since we entered the forest I had this strange sensation that hungry eyes were watching us. We continue to follow the foot prints and we founded a imperial camp near some small hills. We couldn't see strait but I was sure that it looked abandoned. Nazir tried to scout ahead, but I stopped him. I knew something was wrong with that place.

"_What? Are you afraid now?" _Bianca murmured.

"_The situation is too strange. We followed footsteps that got us to this camp that is abandoned? Something is really wrong here…"_ I answered her.

While I was talking to Bianca an explosion hits the left flank of my soldiers.

"We're under attack!" One of the soldiers shouted.

"But from where?!" The other asked.

I started to look around to see were the fire was coming when I noticed something shinning in the middle of the bushes on top of one of the hills, and then I realized…

"Sniper! Get down!"

When I shouted everyone protected themselves. The sniper shot and missed, he was aiming right at my head. I got up and shot back but by the time I did that he was long gone. So I waited, lying on the ground covered only by the long grass of the forest and so were the rest of us when I saw another shine on one of the branches of one of the trees. I didn't thought twice, aimed and shot as fast as I could and I finally saw the sniper who was covered in leaves, camouflaged, falling from the tree brench.

For my misfortune, the other snipers that were there saw me as well and shot back, one of the shots got my arm.

"Sir!" One of the soldiers shouted.

He got up, trying to run in my direction to help me, but that was a mistake. When he got up he was instantly shot down by a machine gunner, also camouflaged.

"Nobody move!" I shouted back.

I dragged myself to the back of a rock and put my back against it. Rolled up my sleeve so I could see the damage. The bullet hit the flesh, but didn't managed to get to the bone, it went in and out. My comrade died for a flesh wound.

Again the explosions hit us, but this time it missed, there were no casualties. I fought that they were using artillery, from far away and the footprints were probably to attract us here. They knew we were coming, and we fell right into their trap.

Nazir crawled to me, trying to avoid being shot down.

"_What should we do?"_ He murmured.

"_Here's the plan, I'll get their attention, when they fire make sure you and more ten of the best shooters we have take most of their snipers and gunners and when you fire the rest should throw their grenades. When the explosions happen get up and run as fast as you can." _I answered.

"_Got it!"_ He crawled back to the others to explain the plan.

I don't know how many of them are there, that's why it would be better for us to retreat and tell the others this location, then we will better prepared when we come back.

I took a deep breath and prepared my rifle to fire. Got out of my cover and shot three times and quickly got back into cover. They shot, and when they did that Nazir and the others shot back and were able to get eight of them. After that they shot the grenades and we waited. The explosions came and we ran as fast as we could. After a couple of seconds the snipers and gunners that were hidden jump out of the bushes and chased after us. Some of us stopped for a couple of seconds to try shooting them and then continued to run after confirming the shot.

One of the explosions from their artillery hits us again, this time it does a lot of damage to us. Six dead and four wounded, one of them a man that was on the floor, rolling in pain because he had just lost his leg.

"C'mon! You're not going to die here!" I shouted and got him up.

I supported him on my shoulder and we continued to run, slower, away from the carnage. Suddenly I felt something grabbing my leg and I felt to the ground. Nazir noticed and came running back, with Zig by his side.

When I looked at my leg I was shocked. The thing that had grabbed my leg was also sinking its metal teeth into it. A bear trap. Put there by none other than the imperials I assumed. After a couple of seconds I realized what happened, and the pain came, I never screamed so much in my entire life.

"Shit! Zig! Give me cover!" Nazir shouted.

Zig laid on the ground next to me and aimed his heavy machine gun at the enemy, when they were in sight he would shoot them down.

"Hold on! I'll get your leg out of that thing!"

Nazir started to pull the metal jaws away from each other, but they were just too strong. As Nazir tried to set me free from that damned trap I could see the bullet shells flying out of the machine gun over my head.

I looked down and I saw Nanah and Zanah, they were shocked for a moment but quickly came back to reality and tried to help Nazir.

"On three! One, two, Three!" Nazir said.

And they pulled the jaws, but that effort did nothing, I knew I wasn't going anywhere.

"Just go without me!" I shouted.

"That's not going to happen sir!" Nazir said.

"We're not leaving you here!" Zanna said.

They tried again but it didn't worked, that's when Zig said:

"They got reinforcements!"

When I looked I saw hundreds of imperial soldiers, coming to kill us.

"We got to go now! We'll have to carry him!" Zig said.

"Stop! There is no use! I would just slow you down!" I shouted at them.

"There is absolutely no way were leaving you here!" Zig shouted.

"You have to go! Tell the others were they are!"

"No! We're not leaving you!" Nanah shouted.

I could see that Nanah and Zanna were crying.

"Look! I promise you that I will come back, but you have to go, now!" I shouted again.

They were all hesitating, but in the end they ran, only Nanah stood behind.

"Promise me you'll survive!" She said.

"I promise."

She than kissed me.

"Now go! Before they get here!"

She finally ran. I've already seen what she suffered fighting for me, I didn't want her to die this time.

I was agonizing in pain when they finally reached me, aiming their guns at me. When I looked at them they seemed to wear masks over their mouths and noses and they covered their eyes with black colored goggles and the top of the head covered by a hood, I couldn't see their faces.

"Who are you!" I shouted.

One of them kneeled near me and looked at me, rotating his head from one side to the other, like a curious dog looking at a unknown pray. On the blink of an eye he punched me in the head and I passed out.

When I woke up I tried to look around but my vision was still blurred, all I knew is that it was a very dark place. I tried to move, but I think my hands and feet were cuffed, and from nowhere, a spotlight got on, right in front of me, it hurt my eyes.

"Well, well, well. Look who just woke up."

I heard a voice that I didn't recognized.

A man got close to me and from the point of view I was I understood that I was cuffed against a table, when he got close he had a mask on and a black bonnet.

"Are you ready for your treatment mister Neroh?"

What treatment? What was this man talking about?


	36. Chapter 35: The new version

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 35: The new version

"How rude of me! Forgive me. I am Dr. Boris, and you Mr. Neroh are my newest patient." The man said to me.

"What do you mean your patient? Were the hell am I?"

"You're in an underground bunker just under that empty camp you and your friends tried to attack. Fortunately for me my lab rats were able to get you back to me in one peace!"

"Your lab rats?"

As I said that Boris made a sign with his hand, as if he was calling someone to get in the room. I could hear man coming inside the room.

"Let me adjust the view for you, can't see too much from down there now can you?" Boris said.

I heard a sound as if he was turning a valve, the table that I was stuck to moved from the horizontal to vertical, and I could see them. The same man that attacked me and the others.

"Remove your hoods." Boris said.

They did and then I saw it. All of them were darcsen slave soldiers.

"What?! That's not possible! I've read the papers for the research! Clementia Forster stopped the research!" I shouted.

"Yes, it is true. In the middle of the process Forster saw the research as a dead end and left the research. But unlike her I wasn't going to quit so easily. I continued from where she stopped and obtained success!" Boris said.

He walked to a small table and picked up a scalpel. He then walked next to one of them.

"A perfect example of the perfect soldier. He does not question the orders given to him, completely subjective to his officer in command and has an incredible endurance against pain."

After he said that he pierced one of the slave soldiers in the chest with the scalpel. His face didn't demonstrated any type of reaction to that, not a single muscle on his face changed, he didn't even moved from the place where he was.

"Fascinating isn't it? The mind still feels pain though, but as long as the body doesn't answer to it, how really cares?" He said with a sarcastic smile on his face.

"Do you mean they still suffer even after being brainwashed?! You bastards are going to pay for this!" I tried to break free, but I had little success in doing it.

With that confusion I forgot about the flames! But no matter how hard I tried to summon them, they never came.

"Don't even try Mr. Neroh. We know what you are, and we already drugged you so that you can't summon your precious flames."

"How did you knew?"

"Our research goes even further than just creating the perfect soldier Mr. Neroh, but enough talking. You'll be ready for your initiation in a few moments."

"Initiation?"

"Yes. You see, my boss would like the idea of having a Guardian to his ranks, don't worry, it won't hurt too much."

"Wait, if you continued the research, that means that that thing we fought in the forest was your creation?!"

"Oh, so you've met patient 005? How is he?"

"Dead! We killed him for stealing little girls from a small village."

"That's too bad, he was one of my best specimen to my research, without him we wouldn't have discovered how to keep the body in perfect shape with the mind."

"What are you talking about?"

"The serum that we developed wasn't working very well, the subjects that were experimented with ended up having no self-control and attacked anything on their way. So we tried a stronger version of the same formula that was made to create the serum. It worked, but it also disfigured the body and after a while they go into a status irreversible of insanity. Patient 005 was strong to the effects of the serum though, he only gave up after we used the same serum on his little daughter."

"What?!"

"You should have seen his face when he finally saw her corpse! Ha ha! Hilarious, she was about what? Eight or nine."

"You bastard!"

"Don't worry. If you resist we'll just have to find a way to make you give up. Maybe a close relative for example." He said, with a malicious smile on his face.

I tried to bite him when he got close since it was pretty much the only thing I could do, but the bastard stepped back before I could reach him.

"When this is over I hope you'll be less aggressive towards your masters." He made a sign to the slave soldier that was next to me.

He hit me with his rifle and I blacked out.

When I woke up my vision was blurry and I couldn't hear right, all I could see was that huge strong light at my face. It was then that I noticed someone coming close. I couldn't see who was it, but I knew it by the voice.

"Let's begin the procedure now, Mr. Neroh." Boris, it was that bastard.

After he said that I felt something like a sting on my neck.

"Don't worry, this is just the first phase of the procedure, but it will hurt a lot…"

My body started to get warm. I didn't felt pain at first, it felt more like a nuisance, but after a couple of seconds the warming changed into a burning, it felt like I was in the middle of a fire. I felt the muscles and the meat under the skin burning, like as if I was inside a furnace. After that the burning stopped, but the pain remained. I screamed until I had no more strength to continue. Boris approached me and opened one of my eyes.

"The subject has survived phase one of the procedure. Prepare for phase two."

At this point I blacked out again.

He continued to toy with me, phase after phase and the levels of pain increased fast. I finally couldn't defend myself any longer. The only thing that kept me alive was the fact that I needed to stay alive for my comrades, my friends, my sister and Nannah. I needed to stay alive for them. They've done too much for me, I need to at least do this much for them.

After another number of phases Boris came back near me. He released me from the table and I dropped on the floor. If it wasn't for all those drugs he gave me I might had a chance of killing him, I could move my hands and arms, but very slowly and weakly.

"Don't worry Mr. Neroh, after this vaccine you won't be able to resist any longer and will join the ranks with the other slave soldiers, maybe you'll be put in a higher position due to your remarkable superhuman abilities. Maybe we'll even use you against your own warpack." He kept making jokes while I couldn't do nothing, not even talk back.

He grabbed a vaccine from a table and was walking to me when a explosion was heard and the whole facility rattled like as if it was a earthquake.

"What is happening?" Boris asked to one of his subordinates.

"The warpacks have found their way into the facility! They have breached our defensive systems!"

"Send the slave soldiers to meet them and begin the security protocol."

The subordinate ran away.

"Sorry Mr. Neroh, but the plans have changed." He walked back to that little table and grabbed another syringe.

"What I have in my hand is a concentrated extract of a deadly toxin retrieved from a series of different plants from the lands of the empire. It's quick and deadly and since there is no cure to it. Perfect to keep our slave soldiers away from the gallian forces. It's a shame really, you could've been one of the best soldiers at the imperial front."

He started to walk at my direction, I tried to move, but I couldn't do it fast enough. When he got close enough to inject that venom another explosion happened and he felt on me, that was my chance! I got the syringe and injected right at his heart, pushing down every drop of that venom.

"Your job ends here, you failed." I said to him.

He tried to speak with the last breaths he had on his lungs.

"I may have failed… But where I stopped, others will continues my work… *cough* You can't stop him… No one can…"

"Who's him?"

"The devil…"

After he said that I saw his life leaving his eyes. He died after all. I walked out of that room to find a corridor that had rooms just like mine. The scientists were nowhere in sight and as I passed by the rooms I saw the result of their "security protocol". Other darcsens like me, killed by the toxin. Many still had the syringes still stuck to them. Imperial scientists bastard left in a hurry. And when I reached the corner I could hear Zanna's voice and the others. I tried to turn it but I got weakened again and felt on the floor. I could see them and they saw me. They ran to me shouting my name but my vision started to get blurry again. I passed out.


	37. Chapter 36: A day to remember

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 36: A day to remember

I slowly woke up, hearing familiar voices around. When I opened my eyes, with my vision still blurry I saw them, my friends.

"I think he's waking up." I heard Nazir saying.

They seemed very relieved. On the outside of the tent that I was in I saw Zanna crying, being comforted by Nanah. I knew she was strong, but I also knew that she was holding her own tears back. When Nazir got out of the tent to talk to them they ran to the tent.

"Brother! Are you alright?" Zanna said, still crying.

I tried to talk, but I didn't had the strength to, all I could do was give her a thumbs up. She smiled.

"Whatever they did to him in there must have drained a lot of his energy. He'll need to rest until further notice." Mannar said.

"I'm going to call Richard. He said he wanted to see you once you were awake." Nazir said to me.

I affirmed positively nodding my head and then he left.

A few minutes later he was back with Richard and Frederic.

"It's nice to see that you're doing well so far. Thanks to you many have been saved. Your solider brought back the cure, it was in the lab you were taken to." Richard said.

"And now all the warpacks have a debt to you and all of your comrades." Frederic said.

"We'll let you rest now, we hope you get better soon. We need you at the battlefield." As Richard and Frederic were leaving Richard stopped.

"Oh yes! I almost forgot. Patient Zero is recovering, thanks to you. Bianca also said thanks, in her own special way." After he said that they left.

"We should probably let you rest to, c'mon people." Nazir said.

As they were leaving I hold on to Nanah's hand. All the other ones left, except for her.

"What is it?" She asked me, with a low voice.

Even now she was trying to hide her tears.

I waited for her to get closer to me and then I gently stroke her hair. I was trying to tell her it was okay for her to cry, but I think she got the message because I could already see some tears running down her cheeks, sparkling while the sunshine that entered the tent passed through them.

"I'm so sorry I left you there!" She hugged me.

The look on her face was as if she really thought it was her fault that I was captured. I tried telling her that it wasn't her fault. If it wasn't for that stupid bear trap that the imperials had put there, none of this would ever happened. I tried to speak, but since I was still too weak all I could do was consulate her.

We kept like that for hours and hours. She was so afraid of losing me again that she got herself a sleeping bag and slept right there on the floor by my side. I was sad seeing her like that. I thought that I could keep her from being worried about me, but this scenario has repeated for several occasions now. She was worried about me and I think she will always be, just like I am worried for her. The only thing that I could do now to ease that anguish in both our hearts was to end this was as fast as I could.

On the next morning I was feeling better now. I still wasn't able to talk very well, just a whispery husky voice. I looked at my side and Nanah was still there, sleeping. I let her resting there. I think she deserved after all that happened last night. When I got out I saw all the warpacks, still helping the ones that were recovering. They saw me and out of nowhere they started to applaud; Like as if I was a great hero, but I felt guilty, I was no hero, at least not yet. Not until this war is over and I make sure that no more civilians are being hurt by the Empire, Darcsens or not.

Richard approached me.

"So, how are you feeling?"

He didn't applaud or anything. I think that he felt the same way and knew that it wasn't the time to celebrate yet. There was to much ahead of us to just think about such things.

"_I'm fine, at least for now…"_I whispered.

"Good. I think you'll be glad to know that we received information about those Darcsen slave soldiers."

"_How?"_

"A Militia soldier contacted us via radio, he said he's name was Gin and that you would understand."

"_Alright, I'll make sure we'll be ready to move tomorrow, but I need to do something first. Where are the ones that didn't make it?"_

Richard took me out of the Warhouse, where I could see a big improvised cemetery. Many corpses were still not buried. When I got closer everyone that were around, digging the graves stopped and looked at me. I think they didn't understand why I was there. I clearly didn't look fully healed yet.

"_Can you get me a shovel?"_ I whispered to Richard.

"Someone give me a shovel!" One of the soldiers there gave him one and he gave it to me.

I approached one of the graves that was being dug and continued digging it. When Richard saw me he asked for a shovel to himself and helped me and asked me:

"Why are you doing this even when you're not even fully recovered?"

I answered:

"_To remind myself what I'm fighting for. The number of victims on this war is increasing quickly and it doesn't matter if they died by guns or biological weapons. As long as this war goes on that number will continue to increase and it'll ruin more and more lives. I think I owe them at least a decent burial for what they are fighting for as well."_

As I said that, I notice that others were coming to help, even the ones that were recovering. All of the warpacks came to help eventually, even my own. With Nanah by my side we finished digging those graves and putting the bodies of those who wished to fight for their country before noon. Even Bianca was there, it surprised me a little.

When she saw me she walked to me and when she was close enough she said.

"I guess I was wrong about you, not all men are the same. If it wasn't for you my friend would have died from the imperial disease. Thank you." This time it didn't felt like as if she was trying to be arrogant. She sounded very sincere.

"_You're welcome__."_ I said.

"But I won't be foolish, just because I trust you doesn't mean I'll trust any man, I can't simply change from overnight. If you are in any need of assistance, you can call on the Colossal Amazons."

"_I'll keep that in mind."_

As we finished burying the dead we let their comrades to say goodbye and went on our way back to the Warhouse.

"So, what are we going to do now boss?" Nazir asked me.

"_We'll prepare to move out back to the Militia H.Q. Talk to Gurol to get more ammo and see if Lokky and the others got the tanks fixed already."_


	38. Chapter 37: Industrial management

Chronicles of the Darcsen Brotherhood

Chapter 37: Industrial management

We are on our way back to the Militia H.Q. now. I was quite curious to know what information they had about the Darcsen slave soldiers. Once we got there I ran to meet up with Gin.

"Gin!" I said as I saw him from a certain distance.

"Neroh! Long time no see friend!" He answered.

"Brother! It's good to know you're alright." Nanah said.

"And I'm glad your okay to. I've heard that you were in some serious trouble. How are you feeling?"

"Fine, it's nothing really."

I see. Well, follow me and I'll give you the information we got on the Darcsen slave soldiers.

We followed him into an office. While we waited he was going through some archives.

"So, how are things going for the Militia? I've heard your guys are doing pretty well and that we might be able to turn the tide of this world around."

"Yep! But I have to thanks Welkin for that though, and you guys too. If you weren't holding back all of those marauders we might have trouble fighting with forces from both sides."

"You got to thank a lot of other people for that though…"

"Here it is!" He gave a file.

"So, what's this?"

"The info about the person behind all of those grotesque lab test on the Darcsen folk. He's name is Arkadius Apollinaris. Apparently he's one of Maximilian's generals."

"How come we didn't know about him before? I thought that the gallian spies had collected all the info on all the commanding officers of the imperial forces. Did they missed him?" I said as I was going through the pages of the files.

"We believe so. He's been working for Maximilian since the beginning of the invasion, Always doing operations by the shadows. He's been so good at it that our spies couldn't even track who was the one commanding the marauders when they first appeared."

"So he's the one that commands them?"

"Yes, and the one making those experiments to all the captured Darcsens too."

"At least we know who we're chasing now."

"Yes, but to catch him won't be easy. Our spies tell us that no matter how hard they try they're never able to track his movements. Every time he travels it's just like he disappears on the roads. What we do know is that he's constantly moving from lab to lab in Gallia's territory."

"He's so good at covering his tracks that he thinks he'll never be caught. I've gotta say, this one has courage, but courage alone won't protect him if he keeps being so reckless."

"I agree. Well that was all I had for you."

"Thank you, this will help us a lot."

"There's one more thing that I wanted to talk to you guys about."

"What is it brother?" Nanah entered the conversation.

"Well we'll be having a big operation to take back one of the cities that have been seized by imperial forces."

"Is it important."

"It's of major importance. It's Fouzen."

When I heard that name I almost froze. If they wanted us to help that meant that they had something big to retrieve a city as well protected as Fouzen.

"But I've hear that Fouzen is protected by a armored train over the city. How are we going to deal with that?"

"It's all planed already. Follow me and you'll be able to talk to the squad that's going to realize the operation."

And so we followed him, to the 7's quarters.

"Hey Welkin, Alcia. How have you guys been?"

"Neroh?! It's a nice surprise to see you guys here!" Welkin said.

"Alicia! Isara!" Nanah and Zanna shouted.

"Girls! How have you been?" Alicia said as they hugged. The same with Isara.

"And this is one of our newest recruits. Lyria, this here is Welkin."

Lyria came forward.

"Nice to meet you." She kept that calm that she always had but this time she was smiling softly.

"Nice to meet you too."

"Welkin, I think it's better to let the squad and the warpack catch up on the things that happened before you explain the mission to me, I need to talk to you about something we discovered the past few months."

As everyone was chatting I took Welkin to a a private place and talked about all the things that happened at Barious Desert.

"Wow! That's really a lot of information to absorb." He said.

"I'm not telling you not to keep it a secret, I'm just saying that so that you already know about if anything comes to happen in the future. If you think is best that the rest of the squad knows about it, it's fine by me." I said.

"No, for now I don't see it as a problem. Don't worry."

"Okay then, thanks!"

As we were walking back he asked:

"So, you're like a Darcsen version of the Valkyrie?"

"That's what Master Oscar led me to believe."

"And there could be literally hundreds of descendants of Guardians like you in all Europa?"

"That's right, why do you ask?"

"Nothing, I'm just thinking how much Faldion would have liked those facts."

"Is he not here today?"

"No, his squad is out on a mission, but I think they'll come back very soon to support us on the recovery of Fouzen."

I told welkin just enough about the story that was passed to me, but I left out about the Valkyrie being the villains of the story. I didn't want that story to leak out and begin a debate on the country about what side of the story was right or wrong. Especially since the Valkyrie are now considered a way of living, a religion. I don't want the country to be at war with itself while we are already on war.

I followed Welkin back to the 7's quarters and when the whole squad and the captains of the warpack were present he explained the plan.

"So, you're going to sneak into the city and take the armored thanks with help from inside? So why do you need us?" Nair asked.

"We're not sure, but now that the manipulation of Darcsens by the enemy is possible it is also possible that the enemy has men inside the labor camps. We need your help to prevent them from alerting the enemy commander or using the other Darcsens as hostages." Alicia explained.

"Got that, I'll try to smuggle some pistols inside to so that if anything goes wrong at least we can count on the Darcsens there to help us." I said to them.

"What's the name of the commanding officer that controls Fouzen?" Zig asked.

"General Berthold Gregor."

When Alicia said that Zig froze.

"_Zig, you're okay buddy?"_ Lokky whispered to him. I was right by their side.

"If everyone got what their job is then we better go rest and prepare in the morning, everyone is dismissed." Welkin said.

While people started to get up and get out of the room I came near Zig.

"Zig, what happened?"

"Gregor… because of him… my parents are… they are…" He ran away from me. I understood now.

"Zig, wait!" Zanna tried to go after him, but I stopped her.

"Let him go, he need to be alone for now." I said to her.

"What happened?" She asked me.

"What always happens on wars. C'mon we need to go to sleep now. Prepare the tents! We'll be ready to move out on the morning asap!" I said to the rest of the warpack.

Tomorrow is going to be a really busy day.


End file.
